As the school year quickly comes to a close, summer projects are only just beginning for the staff at Triad.
Director of Operations Neil Laughbaum highlighted for the Board of Education a number of upcoming projects staff members are aiming to complete over students’ summer break.
Before digging into the details, Laughbaum said he wanted to give kudos to the district’s kitchen staff for their work throughout the 2023-24 academic year.
He specifically noted that the kitchen staff has been creative when researching the most affordable food options from suppliers and creating meals with those ingredients.
For instance, Laughbaum said the new salad bar, which has been popular among students, is also being used as a station for students to create their own Chipotle-style burrito bowls.
He said he is also confident in the work that summer staff will complete this year.
Although there has been “almost complete turnover of custodians since 2021,” Laughbaum said five of the seven staff members have been around for a summer so they will be familiar with the work scheduled.
Staff will be joined by four interns that will help complete the planned projects.
Laughbaum noted that three interns will be placed with the custodial staff and one with maintenance, each of which will work around 30 hours per week.
He said the custodial interns will be paid partially through the Strategic Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE) while the maintenance intern will be fully paid through the organization.
Among the projects slated at the high school are resealing the asphalt in the parking lots, resurfacing the building’s roof, replacing the existing flooring and repainting.
Laughbaum internal doors will also be rekeyed at the high school and middle school.
All external doors have already been rekeyed, he explained, but doing so within the buildings will ensure all keys are accounted for, easily labeled and accessible when needed.
Progress will also continue on several major construction projects throughout summer break, including building the new FFA barn and transportation office.
Other projects include normal summer building cleaning, bus inspections and updating routes and the installation of new ovens at the elementary school.
Technology Coordinator Ryan Thompson also highlighted a number of tech updates happening within the district.
He said he already ordered domes to replace the plastic coverings that protect security cameras throughout the district. Thompson explained that the clear, plastic domes naturally degrade over time so the replacements will result in a much clearer image.
The district is also switching the brand of Chromebooks provided for students from Dell to Lenovo.
Thompson said there are a number of benefits that pushed him in that direction.
Namely, he said the Dell Chromebooks take three hours to reach an 80% charge, compared to only one hour for Lenovo. Thompson said that especially comes in handy when students come to class after forgetting to charge their laptops in advance.
He said the keys on the Lenovo keyboards are also stronger compared to the Dell keys that easily pop off, which should reduce the number of repairs needed.
Likewise, Thompson said the headphone port is more sturdy on the Lenovo laptops.
Especially among the kindergarteners, the port is frequently broken when students are accidentally too rough when trying to plug in their headphones. Thompson said he is hopeful this will become less frequent with the new computers.
Aside from hopefully being more resistant to wear-and-tear, Thompson said he likes the size and ratio of the Lenovo screens better than those on the Dell computers.
He also shared data with the board regarding the district’s first year using touchscreen Chromebooks in certain grades.
Thompson said the touchscreen computers were ordered for fifth and ninth graders because they were available at the same price as regular Chromebooks.
When he ordered them, he said he did so with the hope that the stronger screens would result in fewer broken screens throughout the year.
Among fifth graders, he said there were 12 broken screens the year prior and that number dropped to just one this year. Among ninth graders, it went from seven broken screens to none.