Hennessey Superintendent Jason Sternberger has told school board members the last couple of months that he didn’t have estimated costs on proposed building projects from the architect.

When he told them last Monday night that four large projects were estimated to cost more than $5 million, board members were more than a little surprised.

Sternberger warned that the estimates “are a wide range since the architect doesn’t know the exact layout, interior needs, etc., so they are for future planning purposes only, not a definite number.”

$5M Potential Large Projects

(1) Track building (transportation shop) northeast of the football field. Would allow remodeling existing bathrooms, add concessions and remodel existing football locker room into a wrestling facility: $1.1 to $1.7 million

(2) Transportation building: $1.2 to $1.4 million

(3) Indoor softball facility: $1 to $1.2 million

(4) Wrestling add-on to middle school gym: $520,000.

The kicker is the school only has $675,000 in its building fund, Sternberger told the board.

Board member comments “I don’t see anything on that list that we have to have,” said President Dr. James Matthew Matousek. “This is the first time we’re seeing all of this.”

“An indoor softball facility? I’ve never heard about this,” said Patrick Griffin, board member/clerk.

David Tillman, board member, said they’d discussed it before.

“Then maybe I was absent that night,” said Griffin.

Construction costs $300 per square foot

“It’s $300 a square foot for new construction for a school,” Sternberger said. “Not for a house, but for school property.”

He also reminded the board they’d purchased the corner tire shop on State Highway 51 at Mitchell Road in August for $81,400 plus closing costs. That 2.75 acres abuts the softball field on the north and the S.H. 51 bus barn on the east.

Wrestling program

“A wrestling program was started without having a facility,” said the superintendent, who took over the year after the program started.

“We need a self-contained wrestling room” because of scheduling, Sternberger said. The middle school gym is also being used by the middle and elementary schools, he added.

“We were assured that no new facilities would be needed when that was approved,” said Matousek.

Projects to Finish

No estimated costs were available on these projects that Sternberger said they’d started and will complete:

(1) Softball concession/ dugout.

(2) Softball canopy over bleachers.

(3) Track press box, etc.

(4) Baseball canopy.

Teacher hired

The board unanimously voted to hire Jennifer Leo Sandoval as a fifth and sixth grade reading teacher. She replaces Evan Kating whose resignation the superintendent announced earlier in the meeting.

Leo Sandoval lives in Hennessey and graduated in December 2020 from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

She has interned at Newcastle Elementary; Santa Fe South Middle School; Reagan Elementary; Cesar Chaves student teacher; Lakeland Elementary Middle School resident teacher (August-October 2021).

She is bilingual (Native Spanish speaker, fluent English) and an Apple Teacher (2019).

At the meeting

All board members were present for the meeting: Vice President Luke Lough, Cristopher Choate, Matousek, Griffin and Tillman. In addition to Sternberger, also at the board table was Timberly Jech, office manager and minutes clerk.

Other staff in the audience were principals Josh Faulkner, high school; Barry Crosswhite, elementary, and Stacey Mack, early childhood; Allison Hurst, middle school special education teacher; Todd Cameron, technology director, and Rae Fuksa, sixth grade math teacher and technology assistant.

Also in the audience were Sheila Duell, a former HHS teacher, and Jesse Ashlock, a Hennessey parent and mechanical technology instructor at Autry Technology Center.