IMLAY - The Imlay Elementary School has undergone another facelift, so to speak. Two years ago the little school in Imlay was painted inside and out. This year sod has been laid in the front of the school.
"That is so cool," exclaimed soon to be second-grader Zane St. Pierre the first time he saw the grassy area in front of his school.
"It makes our school look so pretty," was another comment from classmate Audree McGillic.
Plans for the grass began in the 2011-12 school year with the school's parent organization, the Imlay Parent Board. The group began doing fundraisers and received a donation from Barrick Mines, said IPB President Nicole Chapai.
"The school has never had grass. When we started the Imlay Parent Board we put that as a priority goal," said Chapai, a former student of the school herself.
"When I went to school there, it was an exciting thing to get to play at another school that had grass. Now, these kids can be excited about playing on their own grass."
Chapai said that when the IPB officially made the grass a goal of theirs, her husband Frank Chapai asked his employer, Ferguson's, in Winnemucca to donate the sprinkler system, which they did, and also contacted Humboldt Ready Mix, who donated the cement to make a walkway around the grass area.
"He was also very excited about getting grass for the school. He even volunteered to mow the grass," she said.
"The parent group out there did a great job in arranging for all the supplies," Pershing County School District Superintendent Dan Fox said.
After all the fundraising was finished, the IPB had $1,100 to buy the sod and the Pershing County School District provided all the labor for the project.
"Mrs. Murphy (IES principal) was a great help in arranging to get everything put in," Chapai said.
She said that the IPB's next goal is to get the school some sports equipment like a tether ball, soccer balls and cones so the students can play soccer on their new grass, and some other sport and play equipment.
"We just want to get the school up to date," Chapai said.
The IPB isn't the only one with plans to get the Imlay school up to date.
At the June 24 Pershing County School District Board of Trustees meeting the board approved a solar project for the Imlay school.
Representatives from Up Start Energy, a solar company out of Texas, will visit the school next week to begin the plans for the solar project.
Fox told the board that the project would be completed by July 2014.
He said that solar arrays at the other schools in the district have saved the school district thousands of dollars.
[[In-content Ad]]
