This is the 10th in a series looking at projects included in an Enid Public Schools Dec. 11 bond issue election. The series continues daily through Sunday. Anyone wishing to submit questions about the proposal can e-mail them to trasp@enidnews.com.







Teacher Nancy Killam brings blankets to school when the weather gets cold and the north wind begins to blow.

In January, the fluffy white batting serves as more than just decoration.

Killam, who teaches a 4-year-old class at Taft Elementary School, rolls up the blankets and puts them at the bottom of her classroom’s windows. She uses the batting for the same purpose, to keep the cold wind from penetrating the deteriorating windows.

“I roll up blankets to put under the bottoms of windows,” Killam said.

She also has put clear tape over holes in windows caused by vandals to insulate from the heat and cold.

Taft is one of the 16 Enid Public Schools’ facilities that would receive improvements if voters approve an $11.5 million bond issue Dec. 11. The measure would provide $9.7 million for facility improvements, $1.2 million for technology purchases and $600,000 for new buses.

It will allow the district to complete a 10-year facility improvement plan to provide upgrades at all school sites, including a new Garfield Elementary School, which would be the first new EPS school since 1963.

At Taft, replacing windows, exterior repairs and renovated bathrooms would be completed, Principal Ann Reding said.

Taft had a new wing built onto the school in 1990 and has received general maintenance and upkeep since the addition. The school now is in need of improvements the district can’t make with its maintenance staff.

Some of the bathrooms at Taft show the building’s age. Stained tile and grout on the floors and cracking walls are apparent.

Reding said the students don’t complain, but improvements would provide comfort and a better environment.

Some of the carpeting in the school has been replaced, but some is more than 20 years old. She said the aging carpet is unsightly and provides health issues for students and teachers. One teacher fell because of rippling carpet.

And outside, cracking sidewalks have caused at least one teacher to fall, she said. Rainwater drains onto a portion of the sidewalk and makes the area “an ice rink.”

Reding said the custodial staff at the school has done an excellent job maintaining the life of flooring and other surfaces.

“We think it’s a beautiful school,” Reding said. “It will be nice to have some repairs.”

The school has received some new tile flooring funded through a 2003 bond issue measure. The school district has spent the last several years planning and completing millions in improvements.

In 2001, a professional facility assessment company identified nearly $40 million worth of needs in the district’s facilities.

The proposed Dec. 11 bond issue would allow the district to complete those needs near original estimates, despite the rising cost of construction materials, said Todd Earl, chairman of the campaign for the current bond issue.

While those projects are ongoing, school officials want to secure funds to finish the original needs and provide for other needs.

Projects completed by the 2003 proceeds include additions and renovations at Eisenhower, Hayes, Coolidge, McKinley and Monroe elementary schools, Emerson Junior High School, Lincoln Academy and Carver Educational Center.

The new measure would address many of the needs remaining at these schools and other projects in the district.

Earl, a local businessman and chairman of the campaign for a 2003 bond issue and sales tax measure, said he chose to lead the charge again this time because finishing the entire project was the right thing to do.

“We have completed $17.6 million in facility improvements, and we are in the process of completing another $4.85 million,” Earl said. “The improvements have made a tremendous difference for our students and our community.”