The Winslow Unified School District had a very busy 2023. Superintendent Connie Gover explained, “We had several multimillion-dollar projects this year. So, we plan to take it a little slow for 2024.” Among last year’s improvements were new roofs for several buildings, new playgrounds for all elementary schools and a new track.
However, there are still several developments that the school will either be in the planning and research stage of or the development of in 2024. One of the most significant and imminent changes is an enhancement in the security of the district’s schools. The district has been working to implement keyless entry into all the schools. Currently, the system is being implemented on the exterior doors of the elementary schools and the junior high. The high school, however, will have a much larger portion of both exterior and interior doors with keyless entry hardware on them. According to Gover, this change is driven by several factors. The biggest reason is so that police officers will have immediate access to any door they need to open at the schools in case of an emergency. If there was an active shooter in the school, and for any reason the police department did not have the key, it wouldn’t be safe to send a staff member to open the door for them. However, with this new technology, they would be able to give a card to every police officer and electronically give them access from anywhere at any time if the need arises. Gover furthered this by saying, “In situations of an active shooter, a lot of harm could be done in just three minutes, so every moment counts.”
The Holbrook Unified School District has similar keyless entry devices that have been implemented for some time now. Gover and other members of staff visited Holbrook to talk about these devices. Holbrook students currently carry student IDs which also act as entry keys for the system. However, Winslow currently plans to issue these keys only to teachers and staff, although the system allows for future upgrades where every student could have an ID for building access. Another benefit of the system is that replacing these electronic IDs is much more cost-effective than replacing traditional keys.
Although much of the hardware has already been put in place in all of the schools and in the district building, it will still be a few weeks until it is fully implemented but they do expect to have the system up and running by the end of the semester.
Another project the district is exploring began with a survey conducted in October in collaboration with GH2 Architects. This survey took teachers, students, community members and administrator’s opinions on what improvements to the schools they felt should be prioritized. At a past governing board meeting, the board talked about either investing in many smaller improvements to the current schools or to build a new school from scratch.
However, now Gover says, “We are currently looking at building a K-8 school. This will require a public vote in the form of a bond measure and require taxpayer dollars.” All of the elementary schools are beginning to reveal their age and are in need of major improvements. One single school for all of elementary and junior high would be great for students and would simplify things for parents, teachers, and administrators. However, it would also leave the district with four vacant buildings. Gover remarked, “When the district built the new high school, they had no plan on what to do with the old high school, and to this day it remains just sitting. So, we need to have a plan on what to do with the old buildings before we begin the new school.”
None of this is set in stone, nor does Gover expect there to be much development with this plan in 2024. Gover also said, “We will set up a steering committee for the new school that will consist of tribal leadership, members of the Chamber of Commerce, leadership from the city, representatives from different churches, and parents from every school” to steer the district in the right direction for what would be one of its most major projects in the last several decades.
Other developments include upgrades to the HVAC systems at the high school’s industrial arts building as well as the high school gym, which will be coming in 2024. “We could keep fixing the old boilers year after year, but it’s time that we just upgrade to an HVAC system,” said Gover. The systems in the new gym should provide a better experience not only to the students using it but to the citizens and parents who visit to watch sporting events.
This spring, the district is also going to dedicate the high school’s student union in honor of long-term district employee Art Griffith. He served over 50 years for the district as a teacher and baseball coach. They originally were going to hold the ceremony back in September but decided to wait until baseball season to better honor his legacy. Everything needed has already been purchased, and the district is just waiting until baseball season to hold the event.
The last big development for the district coming in 2024 is a new travel bus for students. This is something that has received a lot of discussion at school board meetings because the need has been there for a long time. The old buses the district currently has could pose some safety risks if the district isn’t vigilant about phasing them out soon and replacing them with new buses. Buses are very expensive, especially to a small district, so administrators have plans to purchase one this fiscal year and another one next year.
In conclusion, the Winslow Unified School District’s plans for 2024, while scaled back compared to the previous year’s ambitious endeavors, focus on key areas of improvement and innovation. These steps, particularly in school security and infrastructure development, underscore the district’s ongoing dedication to advancing educational quality and student safety in a rapidly evolving landscape.
