Submitted by Dr. Ethan Sickels, Rock Port R-II Superintendent

A huge thank you to our community for your support of Proposition 2 and the Rock Port R-II School District! We are excited for what the future holds here in Blue Jay Nation, and this bond issue was a key step in ensuring some facility changes that provide much better educational opportunities for our students. Although there will certainly be some headaches and challenges over these next 15 months, our staff and students understand that long-term it will be worth the hassles!

I wanted to provide a brief timeline of what comes next . . .

• Veregy will begin the bidding process, and we should have some final numbers and what all will be included in the project around May 19.

• During these last seven weeks of school, we will begin boxing up classrooms, moving desks, tables, etc. into a storage bin that will be located in our west staff parking lot, and will be bringing in a haul-off dumpster in mid-May to begin cleaning out the dome.

• By Friday, May 26, at 4:00 pm, our goal is to have the dome “empty.”

• Dome demolition is slated to begin on Tuesday, May 30. My understanding is there is some work in the dome that needs to happen before just it is bulldozed in (and perhaps bulldozed isn’t the correct wording). Either way, this will mean our west parking lot will be closed from that point forward, and the street on the west side of the school will likely be blocked off for a month or longer.

Obviously, this a huge undertaking while we still finish out the regular school year, and possibly hold summer school (depending on enrollment numbers) in the elementary this year. Patience and understanding will be needed not only this summer, but throughout next school year as well, as parking options will be limited on the west side of school, and there will certainly be some other challenges as our classroom spaces will be limited. As mentioned above, the end results should be well worth the pains we deal with in the immediate future.

We are nearing the end . . . the senior countdown has been posted on their lockers, our spring sports and activities are well underway, and the calendar continues to fill with upcoming concerts and banquets. It has been a great year, and I’m looking forward to what our students can achieve the rest of the way. As always, I leave you with three important words . . . GO BIG BLUE!