Growing Hedley school needs more space

Increasing enrollment and additional classes are pushing Hedley ISD to build more classrooms, according to School Superintendent Bryan Hill.

The Hedley Board of Trustees accepted a bid of Redi-Built Metal Products & Construction for a 30x70x10 steel building with a 4” concrete slab, 3” Fiberglas insulation, six doors, four windows, and all the trim for $24,150 when they met in a regular session November 20.

A bid was also accepted from the same company for a 10×70 awning and four-inch thick sidewalks for $2,800.

“The crew should start setting up forms for the concrete this week, and we hope to be finished by March 1, 2001,” Hill said.

The new building will include space for a sixth grade classroom, bathrooms, and a new science lab. It will be constructed on the north side of the HISD campus.

Hedley’s enrollment is currently at 174 students. Hill said that is up 60 students from six years ago. He says the two new rooms will just meet the school’s basic needs.

“We’ve been pretty crowded for the last few years,” Hill said. “Every classroom is full, and you can’t get in to clean them. We have four or five teachers floating around from period to period, and we’ve added an ESL [English as a Second Language] program. We need these two rooms just to get by.”

Hill said the school would really also like to add a new computer lab as well as a bigger library or a combination library/auditorium.

In other school business, the itinerary for the senior class trip to was presented and approved. The seniors will be taking a cruise from Galveston to Mexico, and the school pickup and van will be used for transportation to Galveston.

The 1999-2000 audit was approved as presented by Bill Baker. Achievement awards were approved for the staff of Hedley CISD, and Principal Terry Stevens presented the Safe and Drug Free School report.

The board voted in favor of changing the regular board meeting scheduled for Monday, December 18, to Tuesday, December 19, at 8 p.m.

Bridget Christopherson was hired as a teacher aide.

Two science lab tables and one teacher’s demonstration table/desk were also purchased.

The inter-local agreement for Shared Services Arrangement with EPSSA was also approved, and Superintendent Bryan Hill gave an administrative report on the Technology Conference.