By Jeff Vorva

The Beecher High School soccer field could be in for an upgrade. At the November 13 Beecher 200-U Board of Education meeting, there were preliminary talks about improving the field.

Superintendent Jack Gaham said he was in contact with a sports facility management company and soon will gather information about the price tag. Once the price is known, there will be a special facilities meeting at 4 p.m., December 5, to determine if it should be taken to the school board for a vote at the December 11 meeting.

Earlier this year, Gaham said members of the community had done damage to the field. He mentioned the possibility of sinking in $25,000 for new sod for the field.

“What has been done to that field is ridiculous,” he said at the time.

CLEAR draws rave reviews

The CLEAR Residency System is up for renewal, and Gaham said once he receives the bid, he will bring it to the board for a vote.

He said the first year of using it was successful, as it caught three out-of-district students attending a district school.

“As the person in charge of residency, I thought it was very useful,” Gaham said. “It’s helpful with the registration process. And we had three people who are out and two of them have been here quite some time. And it’s helped with our police assistance in some of those, as well.”

The superintendent said it costs the taxpayers $13,500 to educate a student per year, and the CLEAR system cost under $12,000, so it paid for itself and then some.

School Board President Ashley Belt said she has recommended the system to other districts.

Could have been worse

A recent power surge in the junior high did some damage, but it could have been worse, according to Gaham.

“We got extremely lucky that, for the most part, we had one teacher’s computer get fried, and we replaced that,” he said. “But, it shut down both the boiler systems.”

He said one of the boilers was up and running, and by the morning of November 13 both were running.

The surge also may have fried circuits in the gym’s scoreboard.

Gaham said the circuit breakers helped prevent further damage.

Coming and going

The board acknowledged the resignation of Darwin Koehn as full-time custodian, Nick Joyce as district mechanic, Dennis Finnegan as full-time bus driver, and Adam Shearer as assistant high school softball coach.

It approved the employment of Angel Haran and Veronica Gomez-Rangel as full-time custodians, Gregory Braun as full-time bus driver, Amanda Higgason as full-time bus monitor, and DeShawn Doss as volunteer high school basketball coach.

Trump wins the student vote

With 216 students at Beecher Junior High casting a ballot, Donald Trump won the mock election with 157 votes, followed by Kamala Harris, who had 55. Green Party candidate Jill Stein picked-up three votes, and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver received one.