– by Willie D, sophomore, and Tavian P, senior –

Over the summer, construction crews swarmed through the building, renovating to make way for a new school office and reception area, new health center, teacher workroom, additional classrooms, and finance office. Maintenance and other contractors also installed Smartboards, scoreboards, and other items around the building.  

“What I really like is the health center, because we’ve been trying to get that for twenty years,” said Mrs. Darby, who currently coordinates health care training for teachers and staff.  

The health center is located right next to the main office area and  will allow the school to better accommodate injured or sick students with state-of-the-art medical equipment, including two new patient cots. 

The administration also hired two staff to run the health center, with one of the nurses, Mrs. Senyk, also teaching health classes. 

“[The office] is completely different,” said Lemuel Heou, sophomore class representative. “There’s no carpet floor anymore.” 

In the school office, they replaced the floor, expanded and moved the walls, and split the finance office to make room for the health center across from the restrooms. Some students see this as a big improvement (as do many teachers), but other students still miss the old office. Administrator Mr. Bradford’s goal was to add more space, but also to increase efficiency by making a quieter work environment for the office staff.   

“[The new office] is fire, but the old one was pretty good too,” said Oliver S, senior. 

Another change this year was fixing the flooding on the soccer field by installing a French drain along the far side of the field, which will prevent water from puddling up on the playing area.  

“Whenever it would rain before or during practice, some parts around or even on the field would be soaked,” said Joshua S, sophomore soccer player. “This year … it looked a lot better.” 

The maintenance team contracted for a new well to be built after the old one had collapsed. Fixing the old one would have cost more than drilling for a new one. 

After a student accidentally kicked a ball into the scoreboard last year, FBT’s facilities manager took the opportunity to order a replacement scoreboard with our new Patriot branding and design. 

Other renovations included removing some closets from the hallway to install a new row of lockers for the girls, rearranging the computer lab,  and repairing the sprinkler system.