From the Desk of Superintendent Mr. Patrick McKernan
On behalf of the USD 429, Troy Schools, staff, and Board of Education, we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and nothing but great things come your way this new year. It is January 5th and we are ready to gear up again. We do anticipate Old Man Winter will be coming and we will deal with it when it occurs. Until then, I am going to enjoy this weather.
We have had a busy 75 days of school. It will be come busier in the coming months. The winter months, in my opinion, are the toughest for students and teachers. We are stuck inside most of the days, and the sun doesn’t shine much. Add to that some snow days, which makes it hard to create any rhythm in our schedule and it can turn into not real productive days. Our charge is to rise above that. As veteran educators, we know these days are coming and we will do our best to continue to provide structure and a great learning environment while in attendance.
You might have noticed some work going on in parking lots and around the exterior of the buildings. We are in the process of getting the white base painted on the grade school and main high school. The weather didn’t cooperate much with contractors then it turned cold. This is not completed yet. We had some drainage tile collapse that drains the roofs of the two main buildings of the high school. We suspect this was the original tile. This caused some water to back up into the basement of the main building. This drainage tile has been replaced, and more work will be done on this in the spring.
We have some work going on at the ballpark with the recreation commission. The dugouts are being refurbished to provide some additional space while adding some roofing. We also replaced a light pole at the ballfield along the right field/first base line. As happens, many times these are unplanned repairs. Fortunately, the board of education realizes we have aging buildings and we plan for some of these expenses yearly.
I hope you had time to spend with family and friends, and your kids. Our staff will welcome them back on January 6th.
Sincerely,
Patrick E. McKernan
Superintendent of Schools
Troy USD 429