By DAVID COLBURN

News editor

Recent attention has been focused on safety and equipment improvements for Hillsboro Elementary School’s playground, but on Monday, Superintendent Steve Noble ticked off a long list of additional facilities needs for the board of education.

Noble’s presentation summarized about a dozen issues observed by board members on a recent tour of district facilities.

Deteriorating columns, framing, and beams in the south wing of HES are in need of repair.

“That will be a fairly significant repair,” Noble said.

The gym, which was once a lunchroom, is the only one of three district gyms that is air conditioned. The three aging air conditioning units will need to be replaced at some point.

“Do we replace those units, or let that gym be a hot gym like the rest of them?” Noble said.

At the middle school and high school, Noble started with the roof.

“This is the place I’d love to have some media pictures up there, we had our board members up on the roof taking a look — gosh, it was cold up there,” Noble said.

Noble described cracking and deterioration that he said will lead to the need for repairs in two to four years.

Damage from a leaky roof on the middle school gym has gradually been repaired, but the looming problem is now underfoot.

“The southwest corner of that gym is rotten to the point where you can feel it move when you walk on it,” Noble said. “It’s probably in danger of someday giving way, breaking through.”

Noble estimated installing a new subfloor in the gym would cost around $65,000.

Other areas mentioned by Noble included the old annex restrooms, high school boiler room, old high school locker rooms, and the auditorium.

“These are things the board and leadership team self-identified,” Noble said. “It could change, which ones get worked on right away, which ones don’t, that hasn’t been determined.”

In other business:

• HHS Student Council President Jakob Hanschu reported 150 students, along with faculty and staff, raked about 60 yards during an all-school service day prior to Thanksgiving.
• HES principal Evan Yoder and HHS principal Max Heinrichs provided quarterly educational updates.
• Following a presentation by Marion County Special Education Cooperative Director David Sheppard, the board agreed to sign an advocacy letter for legislators detailing needs for special education.
• The disposal of two buses and acquisition of another bus were approved.
• Supplemental contracts were approved for Glenn Ratzlaff and Alex Bumgarner as HHS assistant boys basketball coaches, and Gretchen Regier as Drama assistant.