HOLYROOD — The USD 112 Capital Improvement Committee, whose members are patrons of the district, reported to the Central Plains school board Monday night on improvements they think are needed at the schools in the next five years.
The most significant project, in the report given by Bert Besthorn, is an addition to Central Plains High School. The approximately 9,000 square foot building would  house  weight lifting and power lifting as well as two additional locker room, the athletic laundry, a concession stand, storage space and  ADA compliant restroom facilities that are accessible both from the outside and inside. Also, the committee recommended the locker rooms be built as approved storm shelters of sufficient size to hold approximately 150 people. The facility would cost approximately $1.5 million.
Athletic Director Pat Stiles said that there is a great need to get weight lifting  off the balcony at the current gym. “Just moving weights for games, people have gotten hurt,” said Stiles. Other coaches said that some kids lifting weights had come close to going over the railing as well as having weights rolling down the stairs.
Besthorn also reported that the gym was not structurally built for weights on the balcony. Furthermore, getting the weights off the balcony would open up seating at the gym.
The concession facility would have adequate seating with electronic links to athletic events.
Other projects listed by the committee as repair and maintenance include a three year rotation of computers, replacement of one student bus per year, roof reseal rotation, and two parking lots per year replaced or resealed.
Special projects to move USD 112 into the future include a new boiler at Wilson, HVAC updates at Holyrood and Bushton.
The committee ranked their recommendations according to importance from number 1 to 3 with 1 being most important. All of the above projects were ranked from 1 to 2.
Ranked from 2 to 3 were new football field bleachers at CPHS, an update to track facilities, replacing the 1968 back-up boiler at CPHS, Wilson practice gym bleachers, energy efficient lighting when lighting needs replaced and bleachers on the lower level of CPHS gym.
There was no action or discussion by the board on the above items.
In other business, nine faculty and staff went to Orlando, Fla. to participate in the Jostens Renaissance Conference and presented a report.
“It was an excellent conference,” said Rhi Becker, CPMS assistant principal. “We got a lot of ideas. We’re looking forward to implementing the new ideas here.”
The group learned how to hold an academic pep rally, and also ideas for academic rewards such as an end-of-the-year trip to Worlds of Fun. There would be specific criteria for the trip.
Becker thanked the board for sending them to the conference.
Wilson FFA gave a report on the awards they have received and their trip to the National FFA conference in October. They have raised funds for the conference and asked the school board to pay for one meal. The board approved paying $200 for one meal.
The board approved awarding comp time for overtime work for 12 month employees. Superintendent Steve Woolf  said some people prefer comp time over being paid time-and-a-half and they wanted to give employees that option.
In addition, Superintendent Steve Woolf met with the electricity provider for Wilson schools. The amount paid by the district is much higher for Wilson compared to the other schools.
Woolf learned that by ending the school or work day by 2 P.m. in July and August, the district would save a significant amount of money due to load charges measured during the heat of summer.
Woolf credits board member Ron Etchinson for encouraging the study of the electrical rates.