Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott Board Honors Two Teachers

Prescott's School Board recognized the efforts of two of its instructors.

The board, in its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Aug. 15, presented a plaque of appreciation to retired Wolverette Coach Bill Cossey.

Superintendent Ron Wright said Cossey would be missed as he led the Wolverettes to 84 regular season wins in three seasons, capturing the conference title three times, going to the regional and state tourney three years in a row and posting 100 victories overall.

At this time, Wright said, they are talking with Cossey about teaching Social Studies and driving a bus.

Wright said Cossey's coaching skills are known statewide, as he has players all over in college programs.

Cossey told the board he has two sons coaching this year and a daughter who could see action on the court at Southern Methodist University. "I could be on the road more now than I ever was," he said, adding the Wolverette program is in good hands with Jody Cowart.

James Cannon was honored as the Outstanding Agriculture Teacher in the Southwest District.

Wright presented him a plaque showing this, saying Cannon does an outstanding job as ag teacher for Prescott, and always has full class loads as students want to study under him.

Cannon, he said, has been with the district 19 years.

"It's a great honor to be chosen," Cannon said. "I enjoy my job and working at Prescott."

He said the district has a well-rounded agri program, with a lot of good students coming through it.

Agri, he said, helps give students skills they wouldn't ordinarily have.

The board agreed to allow Wright to announce Curley Wolf football games with KHPA again this year.

There will be extra help around the field this year, which will free him to be in the booth.

Cannon, he said, has done some fencing around the bleachers to help keep people out from under them.

Wright has spoken with the architecture firm designing the new gym, asking about the mound of dirt by the administration building.

Because of the ground being flat, with the plans calling for a sunken gym floor, he said, the "hill" had to be built to keep the field house and classrooms from being below ground level and possibly leaking when it rains.

Once construction is finished, he said, the court will be at ground level, and still be sunken as the rest of the facility will be elevated.

Rico Harris, the principal architect on the project, suggested putting a fountain in, but Wright didn't care for the idea. There could be problems, he told the board, with people putting detergent or other such things in it.

It was suggested to have a statue of a Curley Wolf made for the front of the building.

In discussing paying for the construction work, Wright said funds have been placed in certificates of deposit to draw interest, while also being used to pay for the new gym being built.

Currently, the district has $2,770,000 in CDs to finish this project.

With school underway and construction going on, a fence has been erected around the construction site to help prevent students from getting injured.

Because the construction has also affected how buses drop students off, the district, Wright said, will have to be creative with its routing.

The district is working with the city to have School Street made one-way all the way to Main Street during school hours.

This, Wright said, is because there were some accidents on this street in the "S" curves involving buses, and buses can't maneuver well in these curves.

The "one-way" status, he said, will be in effect at the start of the school day and the end of the school day, as a section of it currently is.

The football booster club has been working with the lunchroom personnel to keep players on campus on game day after school ends.

Wright said the idea is to make sure the players get well fed before home games and help them stay focused on the night's game.