New Roof at MHS Tops $1.2 Million

McKENZIE (December 3) — A new roof for McKenzie High School was approved by the McKenzie Special School District Board of Education on December 3.

The Board approved a bid presented by Lashlee-Rich, the construction management company.

Strickland Roofing Company was the successful bidder at a guaranteed maximum price of $1,231,721. The bid includes 60-mil PVC material with a 30-year warranty. The final price includes a new roof on the field house and waterproofing several vertical walls around the building.

In the coming months, replacement doors and windows will be installed at the school. Those were approved months ago. Installation should begin when the windows are available for installation.

New seating at McKenzie Middle School Gymnasium was revisited, but no action was taken.

Bleachers and Seats of Nashville provided a bid of $94,473 to replace the current visitors’ seating, which involves adding more seating and changing the plastic to wood seating. A major change also consists of reversing the home and visitor sides.

Another company will be allowed to resubmit its bid since it originally provided a price for more seating than the bid from Bleachers and Seats. The gymnasium was constructed initially in the year 1954. It was built by Lashlee-Rich contractors. The gym once served as the home court for McKenzie High School, McKenzie Middle School, and Bethel University.

Willie Trevathan was recently contracted to replace the flooring of the basketball playing surface. The current floor has several ‘weak’ spots.

CQT Flooring, Willie Trevathan, of Martin was awarded the contract at $99,900 to replace the flooring, install sleeves for volleyball netting, stain the floor and add striping for both basketball and volleyball, a sports program not yet at MSSD. Trevathan will also refinish the gym floor at McKenzie High School and install volleyball net sleeves.

Three teachers were granted tenure. Those were: McKenzie Elementary School, Kristina Collins; McKenzie Middle School, Jessica Hochreiter; and McKenzie High School, Hunter Herrin.

Eleven teachers were also recognized as Level 4 or 5 teachers as assessed by the State of Tennessee Value-Added Assessment. Each teacher received a vinyl banner indicating the honor.

This is the second year that MSSD has publicly recognized these teachers. Dr. Justin Barden, Director of Schools, initiated the concept of vinyl banners for the teachers to display in their classrooms.

This recognition is for the 2023-2024 school year. The TVAAS levels 4 and 5 indicate levels of student growth “Above” or “Significantly Above” the expected levels for the school year.

TVAAS Level 5: Paula Doster, Amanda Morris, Paul Carroll, Sherrie Austin, Josephine Wright, David Hochreiter, Amanda Oakley, Kristi Brown, Courtney Kee, and Mary Spivey.

TVAAS Level 4 honoree was Jordan Jowers.