West
AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE WEST NOBLE SCHOOL CORP.
SUMMER 2017
Bleachers come down with student help BY KELLY LYNCH klynch@kpcmedia.com
LIGONIER — Three days after West Noble High School’s graduation June 4, the places where family members and friends had stood and cheered were gone. The bleachers that had sat in the school’s gymnasium for nearly 50 years were dismantled and hauled away by students, staff members and administrators, saving money for the district and bringing the community together in the transition to a new aesthetic for the gym. Beginning the project at 7 a.m. June 5, the morning after commencement, those involved had no instructions on how to take apart the two sets of bleachers or time to strategize beforehand. A lot could have gone wrong. But with student and staff volunteers working four- to eight-hour shifts to take apart the bleachers, it went as
New student registration for 2017-18 Any student that was not attending West Noble at the end of the 2016-17 school year will need to call to make an appointment to enroll their student as early in August as possible. New students should have a current transcript, birth certificate, shot record and proof of residency.
smoothly as could have been imagined, Athletic Director Tom Schermerhorn said. More than 1,000 hours were logged by more than 200 workers in a little over three days. “The kids were instrumental in the lifting and the carrying and the hauling the material away, to unbolting things,” Schermerhorn said. “The thing that was so neat about it was just seeing how they took charge when it came to leadership, their thought processes. “We weren’t given a set of instructions of how to do this … you just have to get into it to see what the best way to take down bleachers is.” The project was headed by maintenance staff members Brad Rollins, Scott Donley and Stan Loos, welding instructor Ed Muehlfeld and industrial technology teacher Marc Daniel, with a goal to get the bleachers down as quickly as possible for the impending replacement of the aging and water-damaged gym floor. The work could have been done by the same contractor that is replacing the bleachers, but using the student volunteers is estimated to have saved West Noble School Corp. about $53,000. Alongside the cost savings was the opportunity for student clubs, such as athletic teams, Theatre33 and other extracurricular activities, to come and help in a historic transition for the school. The savings will go toward helping fund those same organizations, and the materials will be recycled for both educational and historical purposes. The high school’s welding class will be able to use for practice some of the metal from the bleachers, with any leftover metal scrapped and recycled. The wood from the bleachers’ seats will
be used in the school’s woodworking class, which also will make projects from the wood as a way of preserving the gym’s original history. “I was hoping it would go well. I never in my wildest dreams thought it would go as well as it did,” Schermerhorn said. “It was just a neat, a good time. The kids were so good. They were looking for things to do, they were looking for ways to help, looking for ways to make things better. I don’t really remember hearing a kid complain.” For a project of this magnitude, Schermerhorn was impressed by the constant stream of work being done over the eight-hour days. Principal Greg Baker agreed at the Board of Education meeting in June. “These kids worked like animals,” Baker said. “They were impressive to watch.” Installation of the gym’s new floor is expected to start next week, and upon its completion will feature a red border, a stained image of the state of Indiana with “WN” and a star over its location in the state, and the words “Chargers” and “NECC” at other points on the floor. Schermerhorn is eager to enter a new phase for the gymnasium, especially with the added features for those with accessibility needs, and is happy the preparation for its renovation can be a story students and teachers will tell years into the future. It also made for three nights of really good sleep once they all got home, he joked. “It was a really cool experience,” Schermerhorn said. “To see our staff, our administration, our maintenance, our kids, our coaches, it was a really neat experience to watch that group dynamic and really accomplish something in a short amount of time.”