Progress on Field House Rennovation Project Continues

The painters working on the field house floor renovation project are making good progress.   At the moment, they have most of the lines repainted with only some minor work left to do on the COC logos and the Bison that will appear at center court.  You'll notice the new design features the word "BISON" at each end of the court.  In addition, the boundary lines are bolder than the paint job that it is replacing.  After the painting is completed, the goals will be replaced with regulation goals (our current ones do not meet new MSHSAA standards) and the final step will be the refinishing of the floor.

Buffalo High School Weather Station

Did you know that the Dallas County R-I School District has its own weather station?  The weather station is part of the "Weather Bug" network and data from the station is available on the internet.  The school district purchased the system a few years back because of a lightening strike that happened on the Buffalo High School campus on Halloween Day 2010 where a few students were injured.  The weather station has a lighting detection system that sets off an alert when lightening is in the area.  When the alert goes off, we lock down campuses and keep students and staff indoors until the weather clears.  Many time lightening is in the area and you can't tell unless you have a system like this.  It is similar to equipment used on many golf courses.  On the internet link to the station you can see live weather data from Buffalo and you can even look at weather data for anytime in the past year.   Visit our weather station stream on the internet by clicking here .   A link can also be found at the top of the school district website.

Spring Cleaning

You think spring cleaning at your house is difficult, you should try it at a school.   What can we say, school folks collect lots of "stuff", so, it makes it a challenge when you have to deep clean classrooms over the summer months.  In most cases, all classrooms in all buildings have floors redone over the summer, which requires everything to be moved.  It's a challenge, but, it's just part of the fun of keeping a school clean and in repair.

New Tile for South Wing of Mallory Elementary

One of the largest projects of this summer is the replacement of the floor tile in the southern wing of Mallory Elementary.  Over the years many tiles in the hallways and classrooms at Mallory have begun to "pop up" and were in need of replacement.  This summer a crew will replace most of the tile in the southern wing of the building so that the new floor will be ready for our staff and students when they return in August.  The installation process requires the floor to be blocked off for an extended period of time, so, crews began the project literally hours after the end of summer school.  The photo shows the really cool machine used to peel up the old tile.

Progress on Field House Floor

Lots of projects include surprises, but, one of the biggest of this summer is the fact that the field house basketball court at BHS is not regulation sized for basketball.  Our gym floor, under its current configuration, is approximately 5 feet longer than regulation.  So, at the board meeting on June 18 the school board made the decision to reduce the floor to regulation size.  With that decision, some other complications related to moving the backboards has brought the floor painting/refinishing project to a stop.  Contractors are being hired to move the backboards and then painters can finish the floor project.  The new floor will feature black lines and letters outlines, with the natural wood used on the interior portion of the lettering.  The new paint job will also add the Central Ozarks Conference logo along with a bison at mid-court (photo taken June 19).

Restoring A Classic

As part of a recent maintenance project to repaint the Agriculture building at Buffalo High School (which had been painted white many years ago), the maintenance staff power washed the building prior to repainting the building.   School staff appreciated the look of the original stone appearance so much that a decision has been made to return the building to the "traditional look" rather than repaint the building.  After the entire building is power washed to remove the old white paint, the building will be sealed with a sealant to protect the building from moisture.  The building was constructed in 1936 and has served as the high school agriculture building since that time.

New Sidewalks at BPMS

The maintenance crew of the school district has recently completed a new sidewalk that runs from the middle school to Locust Street.  This sidewalk will eventually join up with the sidewalk project just being started by the City of Buffalo.  Eventually walking students will enjoy the safety of a sidewalk all the way from the middle school to Highway 32 along the west side of Locust Street!!!

Building Trades Home Nearing Completion

The new home that was constructed over the last two years as a project of the building trades program at Dallas County Technical Center is nearing completion.  It is hoped the project will be finished early in the new school year.  The home is located on Locust Street, just south of Highway 32,  in Buffalo and has already been sold to a lucky family in the community.

New Technology in Dallas County

Back in the fall, the Dallas County R-I School District sold a piece of property on the southeast corner of the middle school campus to Show-Me Technology.  The land sale allowed Show-Me to begin the initial phase of a federal grant initiative that will bring new enhanced broadband internet access to Dallas County.  The project will benefit the county by bringing higher speed internet connections to homes and businesses.  It will also allow community leaders to market our community as a 21st Century work place.  The project will benefit the school district by reducing our cost for internet service, which is a growing expense for schools.  In addition, when completed this project will allow the school district to "hard wire" the Long Lane campus to the internet rather than using a wireless internet connection.  The current system that connects Long Lane to the internet uses a tower on the Long Lane campus that connects with an antenna located on a water tower in Buffalo.  The expected project completion date is late 2013, however, you can already see progress with the recent construction of the Point of Presence (POP) building on the extreme southeast corner of the middle school campus (photo shown) on Locust Street.

School Staff Participate in Relay for Life

Many of the school staff members participated in the Dallas County Relay for Life held on the Buffalo square on June 8-9, 2012.  The project is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.  The team shown is the "Fighting for Pink" team that includes Superintendent Robin Ritchie, Head Bookkeeper Nancy Packard, Assistant Superintendent Jon Turner, Director of Transportation Diane Cowden, and teachers Kim Jackson and Goldie Potter.  The team raised over $7,000 for the cause!

Floor Refinishing at BHS Fieldhouse

The school district is very busy over the summer months as we work on projects that are difficult to complete during the school year.  One of our projects for this summer is the resurfacing on the field house floor at Buffalo High School.  The new floor will feature a bolder, more modern design that will feature our school colors, a COC conference log, and the words "Bison" at the end of the court.  As of June 14, this photo shows this floor project in progress.