Tennis courts, track estimated at $325k

Polk County Schools has major plans to make repairs this summer, including replacing the track and tennis courts at the high school, estimated at a total of $325,000.

The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Monday, Feb. 4 and approved a budget amendment allowing the school system to move $500,000 from the school’s fund balance for the capital improvements. No money was taken from the county’s budget for the repairs.

The repairs include the tennis courts and track, which are cracked and becoming dangerous, adding onto the media center at Sunny View Elementary, repairing ventilators in classrooms at the high school, repairing drainage at the courtyard at Tryon Elementary School and various technology improvements.

Polk County Schools Superintendent Bill Miller attended the commissioner’s meeting and said these are big capital items that the school system has postponed through the recession.

He said the big items are due to the fact that the high school is now 21 years old, even though most in the county still think of it as “the new high school.”

Miller said the school board created a committee, which asked every school their biggest capital needs and the list was narrowed down to these items.