Renovations planned for Belle Fourche High School - KOTA Territory News

Renovations planned for Belle Fourche High School

The Belle Fourche High School was built more than six decades ago and is in desperate need of an upgrade.

"It's 60 years old – that's old," said Clay Anderson, Activities Director.

And during those 60 years the school could afford very few upgrades.

"It's long overdue," added Anderson.

Anderson says the areas used during athletic events, such as the locker room and concession stand are in desperate need improvement.

"Your biggest show in town is when you have activities and you bring the public in and you want to show off your facilities. This isn't the best facility to show off," said Anderson.

Principal Mathew Raba says there's asbestos in the ceiling, the bathrooms are old, and the boiler that heats the building is large and outdated.

"It will be replaced with I believe three smaller boilers that will run intermittently. They'll be more efficient and will save money," said Raba.

Not to mention the cafeteria is small and can't accommodate the growing student population.

"Currently we have to run three lunch periods to handle the amount of traffic and we'd like to be able to cut that to 2 lunch periods to minimize the disruption in the day," said Raba.

Raba adds they've been planning the upgrades for a few years, but with a price tag of more than two million dollars, they had to wait until they could afford it.

"These are bonds that we have borrowed and will put into our long term debt reduction plan and use capital outlay dollars to pay them off," said Raba.

After having to wait for the funds, Anderson says he's excited to show off the improvements.

"We want nice facilities to make our activities a big thing. It's just going to be improvement all the way around," said Anderson.

The asbestos will be removed during Christmas break.

The construction on the project is slated to begin in March and be completed by October.