Members of the Picayune Separate Municipal School Board of Trustees approved a motion to conduct drainage work to the baseball field.
Lynn Greer with Landry and Lewis Architects presented the lowest bid to the board, submitted by Sports Contractors Unlimited, which was for $303,209.
Greer said there were a couple of items the board could remove from the project to reduce the cost, including not replacing the fence and not installing concrete under the grandstand.
Work to replace the fence would include a vinyl coating to areas where the public would come into contact with the fence. By removing that item the bid would be been reduced by $45,000. By not putting concrete under the grandstands the bid would have been reduced by an additional $18,700.
Athletics Director Walt Esslinger said the fence needs to be replaced.
“It’s lived a pretty full life,” Esslinger said.
The project will involve digging up the outfield in order to increase its ability to drain, but leave the infield intact, Greer said.
Additionally, if the project is complete by the deadline of mid July, then the contractor would sprig the areas where work was conducted, but if the project finished late the contractor would install sod at a loss, Greer said.
After some discussion the board moved forward with the entire project, including the fence and concrete work.
At the beginning of the meeting the board took a moment to recognize the sixth grade students involved in winning the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow contest, which provided $135,000 worth of technology to Nicholson Elementary.
Nicholson Elementary teacher Maureen Pollitz said the project began as a way to help the city. After city of Picayune Public Works Director Eric Morris came to the group about the need for a device that could remotely video their storm drains, the students put their heads together and created a robot capable of handling the task. Pollitz said a commercially available device that could do the same thing would cost about $50,000.
“I let the group of sixth graders solve the problem and boy did they tackle it,” Pollitz said.
This year the contest received 3,100 entries, of those only five won the top prize. Additionally, Pollitz said that in the five years the contest has been held, Nicholson is the first elementary school to win.
The board then congratuled the participating students, including Braxton Speights, Hope Babrovolskis, Makayla Stewart, Blaine Chaisson, Hayden Walker, Heaven Whittington, Caden Westmoreland and Kaydee Hensiek.
In another matter the district is applying for funding that will allow all students attending all grades to eat breakfast and lunch for free. Last year, the district was approved for the Community Eligibility Provision Agreement that allowed all elementary students to eat for free, but when the district checked into adding junior high students, they found all schools could be part of the program. Harrell said the board’s motion to approve the agreement will allow him to submit the application, which he feels confident will be approved.
The next school board meeting will be May 26 at noon.