POLAND — Board of Education members heard reports on three different capital improvement projects at the Wednesday regular meeting: new scoreboards, a possible addition to the Field House and a new paving project at McKinley Elementary School.

Three new sports scoreboards will be installed next month and hopefully completed by the end of August.

“The high school stadium scoreboard was upgraded in 2013,” Athletic Director Brian Banfield said. “It uses software we can’t find anymore.”

The Field House scoreboard is from 1999 and Banfield said, “Technology has changed and the old systems are hard to update. We’ve had to find parts for it on eBay.”

The baseball field scoreboard is from 2012 and has taken a beating from the weather. Banfield said some of the panels have blown off and the bulbs have dimmed.

Banfield said work has begun on the stadium scoreboard and will be followed by the baseball field scoreboard and lastly the Field House unit, which is expected to be finished by mid-August.

Superintendent Craig Hockenberry said the total cost for all three scoreboards will be $225,000 and will come from the permanent improvement funds. A good chunk of that money will come back to the district as the stadium scoreboard will have advertising opportunities on it.

“We already have some big advertisers ready to commit,” Banfield said. “If all goes as planned, the advertising funds will pay it off in about 10 years.”

Training on the stadium scoreboard will begin this week and will include those who will be running video on the big LED screen.

One other detail Banfield mentioned was the inclusion of shot clocks for the Field House scoreboard. The units will be separate from the main scoreboard and likely won’t be installed this year.

“We are really excited for what is coming,” Banfield said.

AUDITORIUM AND

ALL-PURPOSE ROOM

Operations Director Matt McKenzie presented an update on the high school auditorium. He said the current seating is from 1972 and was designed to be permanent. That makes it hard as some of the Poland stage performances require a row or two to be removed and later put back.

“They weren’t made to do that,” McKenzie said.

The plan is to renovate the auditorium with new carpet, ceiling tile and paint. The most expensive part will be the seating. He estimates the new seating will cost approximately $220,000. The seats will come in blue and gray. McKenzie said he inquired about white, but they were not a good choice for auditorium use.

The second item McKenzie presented for the board to consider was a new all-purpose room. He presented plans to build the room off the existing Field House and it could be used by the wrestling team, the cheerleaders and as a gym class location. To save money, it could use the Field House restrooms, or could be built along the Field House wall that contains the utility lines. It would be cheaper to go through the Field House wall as opposed to going underground to a standalone building.

The price tag could run approximately $885,600 for the all purpose room and it would give the wrestling team a space they have requested previously.

“How are you going to go to the taxpayers on this,” said board member Laurent Dinopoulos. “I think it would be a hard sell.”

MCKINLEY PAVING

The final project was the McKinley paving project. McKenzie presented a plan to pave around the building and offered a plan to make the track wide enough for two rows of vehicles. Right now, vehicles have a single lane around the track and go into two lanes in the straight section by the school. By making it two lanes all the way around, it could take more vehicles off the congested streets like Cortland.

“We could also include extra parking for teachers,” McKenzie said.

He said the asphalt is cracked and in bad shape, and the front of the middle school also needs paved. The base price for the project would be $89,113.03. The expanded parking lot and two lanes would run between $121,650 to $208,916, depending on what options the board decides.

“I wanted to present it at this meeting so it could be on the July agenda,” McKenzie said. “If approved in July, it could be done in August.”

In other business, the board approved the purchase of two new 72-passenger school buses from Myers Equipment Corporation at a cost of $265,816. The buses were bid through the Ohio Schools Council on May 5,2025, and are part of the district’s replacement program.

“We put together a good plan to update buses and keep the kids safe,” said Board President Gregg Riddle.