The Puzzle

As I rounded the corner and began walking down the hallway of Columbia Central High School my eyes glanced up at the wall to my right.  I found it interesting that there was a purple colored square on the wall.  It was puzzling, I wasn’t sure what the square meant.  Later during the day there were two, then three, then four squares arranged on the wall.  The puzzle was becoming clear: it was a picture.  As additional painted squares appeared over the following few days more of the picture appeared and I realized that the picture would be of a familiar character from a cartoon movie.

In much the same way, many things in our lives appear slowly, like random pieces of a puzzle, until we finally see the picture clearly.  Currently we are working with Kingscott architects and Granger Construction to complete an assessment of our school buildings and facilities.  As part of the process looking at each piece of the facility assessment puzzle, we are working with a group of community members who are part of a Facility Improvement Team.  

The Facility Improvement Team will work together, gathering input from community members, business owners, school personnel, and Columbia School District students.  Throughout the process the FIT team will use a process to continue to assess, evaluate and gather additional input regarding the concerns with our facilities.  

Currently we are aware of only a few of the puzzle pieces: Our heating systems are over 44 years old and while some areas have updated controls, the core of the system is unreliable and outdates.   The existing roof structures at the buildings have outlasted their expected life-span.  Our technology infrastructure needs are many and improvement of the system would tremendously benefit our students.  In addition to the puzzle pieces of heating, roofs and technology, our students’ safety is paramount.  As we have worked to assess our school facilities, we have specifically noted ways of increase the safety of our children and school staff members.

The entirety of the Columbia School District community is invited to assist the Facilities Improvement Team.  If you are interested in helping to complete the facility assessment puzzle and would be interested in serving on the team, please let me know by sending me an email to pam.campbell@myeagles.org.