LOUDONVILLE — Potential plans to update Loudonville Schools’ soccer field and football stadium were outlined by Supt. Jennifer Allerding at Monday’s board meeting.
Potential new projects in the works
Allerding said the soccer field “took a big hit this year” from the drought, which has resulted in the loss of good grass. She mentioned that some kids have incurred injuries from running over large clumps of grass.
Allerding and grounds supervisor Shayne McCaskey are looking into the costs of reseeding or irrigating the field.
“We have boys and girls that play there and it’s probably one of the worst soccer fields I’ve seen,” she said.
She also described the state of the visitors’ bleachers at the football stadium as terrible. The bleachers are over 20 years old.
“We need to do a project there,” she said.
Allerding wants to potentially move the home-side bleachers to the visitor’s side, and install new bleachers on the home side.
But, she said the project would be expensive, especially if the bleachers feature handicap accessibility, which Allerding thinks is important to include.
Allerding also said she plans to apply for the new Ohio School Bus Safety Grant program.
Student updates
This year, 15 Loudonville High School students applied for the Kettering Scholarships, marking the highest amount of participants. The Kettering Scholarship was comprised of $10,200, which was divided among the following students:
- Emlyn Bitner
- Zebulun Brecheisen
- Abby Eikleberry
- Hannah Endslow
- Natalie Endslow
- Clare Hahn
- Emily Kern
- Addison Lowe
- Laila Manchester
- Baylie Mortimer
- Grayson Oswald
- Steven Ringler
- Kaylee Spreng
- Kylar Staten
- Audriana Zeigler
To win the scholarships, the students had to write an essay, have an interview with Loudonville Street Fair board members and Allerding, and create a booth about themselves for the street fair.
Each student received at least $500 toward their career pathway after high school.
“Congratulations to all of those students; they did an exceptional job,” Allerding said.
Allerding also noted that Hope Squad is starting to take off at Loudonville-Perrysville Schools, with 32 students participating at C.E. Budd Elementary, 14 students at the high school and 11 students at the junior high.
The C.E. Budd students met last week to talk about anti-bullying and kindness. The students started creating posters and planning activities for Unity Day on Oct. 22, which is the signature event of National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.
The students also embarked on their bi-weekly challenge, which was to reach out to someone in their class that they don’t normally chat with and ask them certain questions.
“Students and parents have been jumping on board, so hopefully that way hopefully those kiddos can make a difference in our district,” Allerding said.