StuCo members address YISD board on campus beautification projects

  • Yoakum High School’s Student Council (StuCo) officers made a presentation to the school board on plans for a rather ambitious campus beautification project at their school. StuCo members include, from left, Jordyn Eviez, Rafael Qulipas, Illana Garcia, Leah Muenich, Abbie Galvan and Samantha Adamek.
    Yoakum High School’s Student Council (StuCo) officers made a presentation to the school board on plans for a rather ambitious campus beautification project at their school. StuCo members include, from left, Jordyn Eviez, Rafael Qulipas, Illana Garcia, Leah Muenich, Abbie Galvan and Samantha Adamek.

    Yoakum High School Student Council members made a presentation to the YISD board of directors Monday, Nov. 13, on various ways they might beautify their campus.

    The students presented a four-phase plan to the board, complete with cost projections, all aimed at attaining that particular goal.

    “One of the first things people look at in this town is our school,” StuCo President Abbie Galvan said.

    “Currently, our trees at our school are overgrown, the bushes are dead, our building is dirty and there are repairs that need to be done.”

    Phase 1 consisted of beautifying the circle drive in front of the school campus. The estimated cost for that project was about $45,000.

    “Our goal (for the driveway) is to replace the plaque that was stolen from there recently,” Galvan said.

    “We also have two fountains there that are about 115 years old. We aim to clean them up and level them as much as possible. We want to make the circle drive more uniform, more balanced, and cleaner.

    All the plants around the driveway are low on maintenance. As student council members, we will water these plants.”

    Phase 2, costing an estimated $11,070, is repairing areas at the front of the school. Some of the money in the bond may help with this phase, YISD board members said during the presentation.

    “Our goal there is to trim the trees and to replace dead plants with new ones,” Galvan said. “We also want to consistently power wash the front of our building and our sidewalks. We really want to fix the foundations of the sidewalks as well.”

    Phase, costing an estimated $17,435, focuses on reviving the courtyard area.

    “The courtyard right now is a dead space in the school, but it’s a space that has a lot of potential,”

    Galvan said. “We would like to do some landscaping in the courtyard and add a retaining wall. There are some drainage issues whenever it rains a lot, so we want to add some rock and gravel near the courtyard. We also want to add benches and picnic tables so it can be an area where students can come sit.”

    P h a s e 4 involved sprucing up the multipurpose area on campus. This will cost roughly $7,000.

    All totaled, the four phases of the project would cost the district roughly $80,505, according to the cost estimates the students presented, with the students taking an active role in many of those projects and their ongoing maintenance themselves.

    School administrators are reviewing several aspects of the plan and will likely leave most of the heavy lifting and power tool usage to professional maintenance staff at the school. However, superintendent To m Kellry said , the board was rather thrilled about the proposals regarding some of the landscaping around the courtyard and circle drive and will likely let the students take ownership of some of those.

    YISD board members also heard a presentation from the YHS FFA Team regarding the benefits of solar power as part of that group’s goal to make 10 presentations to various local government bodies as part of a larger state competition they are involved with.

    They plan to share their research on solar power with members of the city council as well.