Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Quiz Bowl Team Honored By Board

Members of Prescott's Quiz Bowl teams and Gifted and Talented program were honored at a special meeting of the Prescott School Board.

Phillip Holtoff, sponsor of these two programs, thanked the board at the meeting held Tuesday, March 7, telling the panel the Quiz Bowl teams and GT students have brought home 28 trophies over the years.

This, he said, is more than the football, basketball and track teams have won combined.

In fact, he told the board, students in these programs have been bringing back trophies since they were in the fifth grade.

Holtoff said the third grade GT students are already winning competitions and this bodes well for the future of the program.

Holtoff's goals are to take the students in GT and Quiz Bowl to the state contests when they reach high school.

"I'm excited about the future of the program," he said.

Prescott Superintendent Ron Wright said it makes the head swell to watch these students in action as they compete, see how well they do and how well behaved they are.

"It's all about academics," he said, and these folks are leading the way."

The board was also told of the progress of the proposed project list. This list of needs was generated when the district worked to, and obtained, a millage increase last year.

Wright said the covered walkways at McRae Middle School and the new roof at Prescott Elementary School have been completed.

At this time, work is being done on getting the ceilings lowered and new lighting installed at PES and McRae. The bulk of this work will be done during spring break.

In additions, the restrooms at PES and McRae will be renovated during the summer, with roof repairs at Prescott High School and McRae also underway.

The lighting work, he said, came in over budget. The district set about $170,000 aside for it, but it will run about $202,000 to get done.

The district had projected getting all of these projects done would cost $1 million, though the figures came in at $816,500. The added expense for the lighting won't put the total project over budget.

Wright said work on the heating and air conditioning units is going slower than expected at McRae and PES.

Earlier Wright had told the board there was a termite problem at the McRae gym. However, he updated the panel, saying the damage wasn't as bad as first thought.

Terminix did come out, inspected the site and treated it, while putting down material to keep the subfloor dry. The major problem, he said, was there was no protection from the floor to the subfloor and a leaking water fountain had caused most of the damage.

Wright said the middle school gym project should be done by mid summer, if all goes well. The renovations include redoing the dressing rooms, adding new lighting and an area to the front of the building for a concession stand and restrooms for the public.

The exterior of the building will be painted to match the new front area, he said, so it will look like one project.

One bid was received on a metal building for the district, with none received on replacing the barn destroyed by the January snowstorm.

McLelland Construction turned in a bid of $18,345.96 for the metal building. Wright said this building has already been ordered.

As for the barn, contractors will be contacted to see if they are interested in doing the repairs.

One of the final orders of business was to accept the transfer of a student from the Blevins district into the Prescott district. This student will enter kindergarten next year.