As Iola-area students begin to refocus on school, USD 257 officials are wrapping up an array of summer projects aimed at improving facilities across the district.
From flooring and lighting to HVAC maintenance and landscaping, the district’s Director of Operations Aaron Cole says it’s been a productive and labor intensive few months.
“It was a productive summer,” Cole said Wednesday.
Among the most visible upgrades: Iola Middle School’s bathroom partitions have now been fully replaced on all three floors.
“Last year we did all the first floor. The second and third floors this summer,” Cole said.
At the elementary school, a large storage room was converted into four cubicle-style offices.
Lighting improvements were also a priority, with continued upgrades in classrooms, hallways, locker rooms, and bathrooms at both the high school and middle school.
New flooring was installed at the high school, including “new carpet and some vinyl plank flooring in five rooms,” said Cole.
“We did all that in-house — tore out the old and installed the new carpet and flooring ourselves.”
The middle school office also received new carpet through a contracted service.
Outside projects included maintenance staff reseeding the football field early in the season, a project Cole described as one of the most time-consuming.
“We really spent some time and focused on trying to get that up to the standard we think it should be,” he said. The summer heat has made maintenance a challenge, but overall, Cole said, “it looks pretty good down there.”
To support drainage on the practice field, a new pump was installed at Riverside Park after heavy rains and faulty floats overwhelmed the old system.
“The city helped pump out some water and we were able to get a new pump,” Cole noted, adding that the new pump is working well.
USD 257 is also anticipating repairs at the track where “some cracks developed along the surface,” said Cole. “They’ll cut out a strip, repair the subsurface, and then put the new track surface on top of it.” 
Once complete, the track will be repainted. USD 257 board members approved a bid from Synergy Track Striping at their May 27 meeting for the repairs.
