RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
Hard work during the hot summer months will soon pay off for Randolph school officials when students open the doors to base schools Aug. 25 to extensively renovated facilities.
Officials said there was much needed work to be done by the high school's maintenance staff getting the school ready for this year's student body. Floors have been re-polished, classrooms were cleaned, running track re-surfaced and elements of the football stadium have been painted.
At RHS, the band has a new marching pad built right next to the band hall; formerly, members had to practice playing their instruments in the school's football stadium parking lot, eliminating a 15-minute walk to and from the old location.
Middle and high-school students will also find newly installed, bigger lockers for their books.
"They will give the students a little bit more space than before," Bruce Cannon, RHS principal, said.
Workers at the high school are also putting final touches on the $XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX million fine arts center renovation project by re-working soundproofing issues and fixing difficult-to-open doors. The new center houses band, choir and art classrooms.
Additionally, a school annex building housing classrooms for eighth-grade English math, history and science lab has been newly renovated; a $XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX million project.
Mr Cannon is also examining possible cafeteria redesign plans and drawings for the 2009-2010 school year.
"Most of the campus buildings are vintage 1962," Mr. Cannon explained. "Three to four years down the road, we want to have all of the buildings renovated."
Mr. Cannon's counterpart at the elementary school, principal Karen Bessette, said children can enjoy a new outdoor pavilion. Workers are constructing covered walkways which, when completed next month, will connect the campus's buildings and keep rain or hot sun off of parents and children using the drop-off areas.
Also, Ms. Bessette said soon there will be a staff and faculty parking lot behind the campus's Early Childhood Center. That, in turn, will open up parking alongside the elementary school's main building.
The elementary school, which was recognized by the Texas Education Agency with the top rating of "Exemplary," is expecting more than 600 students to show. It also added a new fourth-grade classroom where two new teachers will teach.
Back at the high school, which expects 90 new students and four new teachers for the 2008-2009 academic year, Mr. Cannon turned to school supplies and academics.
He said all incoming freshmen are eligible to receive a laptop computer if their parents permit them to. Parents wanting to grant permission for their child to get a laptop simply fill out the required paperwork that will be brought home the first week of school.
In addition to computer giveaways, a new course called "Media Analysis" was added for the academic year. Nearly 20 students have already signed up for the new class.
Mr. Cannon also mentioned this is the second year in a row that students - rising sophomores and freshmen, specifically - will be required to take four years each of English, math, science and social studies in order to graduate from high school. This year's rising juniors and seniors aren't required to follow that regimen.
Additionally, students will face end-of-course testing in Algebra 1, biology, chemistry, U.S. History , physics and in world history, Mr. Cannon noted.
He said end-of-course testing will help students - at a time when which most of them will have 15 to 20 jobs in the course of their lives - to be life-long learners who can read, speak and write well.
"It'll be 20 years down the road before to see if the students are successful - paying taxes and contributing to society well," Mr. Cannon said. "That's kind of the ultimate test."
For more information on registration for all Randolph Air Force Base schools, visit
www.rfisd.net or call at 357-2400.