Gym Floor to be Replaced At McKenzie Middle School

McKENZIE (November 5) — After a couple of months of discussion and exploring options, members of the McKenzie Board of Education voted to spend $95,900 to replace the entire playing surface of the McKenzie Middle School Gymnasium to correct 11 weak (dead) spots in the floor that was installed 60-plus years ago. Another $4,000 was approved to install volleyball lines and sleeves for a future volleyball program.

CQT Flooring-Willie Trevathan of Martin was the successful contractor to install the new floor. Trevathan offered a second bid of $160,000 to replace the entire floor, including under the bleachers.

S[sorts Floors of Memphis bid $33,624 to make spot repairs, only the weak spots, and an additional $8,652 for volleyball playing lines and sleeves for installing the nets. The company also bid $148,865 to $168,773 for various surfaces options to replace the entire floor.

Board member George Cassidy recommended only making repairs and cited a school that made successful spot repairs.

Board member Bobby Young said the extent of repairs and costs should be considered in the long-range construction plans. The board has discussed constructing a new pre-k to eighth-grade school as a long-term goal.

Board member Karen T. Fowler made a motion to contract with CQT for the replacement of the playing surface. George Cassidy was the lone no-vote.

New Safety Communications System
Dr. Justin Barden presented options for improving communications during a school emergency. In the previous month, the board reviewed a Centegix safety platform in which each member of the faculty and staff would have a push-button lanyard to activate the emergency alert system. A certain sequence of depressing the button on the lanyard would activate different levels of emergency. The initial cost is $53,220, with recurring annual costs of $24,600 for years two to five.

A second option was Navigate 360 at an initial cost of $47,881.

Board Chairman LaShonda Williams said she visited the Henry County School System to learn more about the Centegix system.

She then queried about expanding the use of walkie-talkies in the local schools.

Dr. Barden said MSSD would need approximately 102 radios to replace radios five years or older plus add radios for faculty and staff. The cost was estimated at $35,598.

The board directed Dr. Barden to secure costs for new walkie-talkies to communicate between school personnel.

Dr. Barden said he would also like to explore adding a visitor management system. In this system, each visitor scans his or her driver’s license before entering the building. A similar system is used in all school buildings in Weakley County.

The board authorized Barden to attain bids for a late-model Ford F250 pickup truck to be used by the CTE and agriculture departments.

The school system achieved 100 percent graduation rate for the year 2023-24 and only one of four systems to achieve a graduation rate higher than 99 percent.

In the Director’s Report, Barden reported the window and door replacement project (approved in 2023-2024) at McKenzie Middle School and McKenzie High School will commence soon.

A pre-bid walk-through was recently conducted at MHS to seek bids for replacing the roof at MHS.

TLM Architects approved removing internal walls to expand the medical training area and provide more room for multimedia purposes.