By Ken Baugh, Superintendent of Schools
Culberson County-Allamoore ISD
We are starting a new construction project at CCAISD. We are putting the finishing touches on the new athletic complex such as the new entrance to the walking track by the baseball field next to the cemetery on 9th Street, the new wall behind the baseball stands on 9th Street, and the completion of a 6-foot wide concrete sidewalk behind the softball field to complete the new walking for the community. We are currently replacing an old sewer line coming from the auditorium before construction starts next week.
We are doing construction in 2 phases. During Phase 1 of construction, staff and visitors will park in front of the main school entrance. Students will need to park in the parking lot across from the gym until phase 2 begins. If everything goes to plan, Phase 1 will be completed by the end of this year. Then phase 2 will begin and last until the end of April.
•Phase 1
Phase 1 is replacing the parking lot around the auditorium and building a new parking lot for staff and bus parking behind the high school shop classes. The new parking area behind the shop classes will add 2 bus parking spaces and 40 staff parking spaces. The new parking area replacing the old auditorium parking will be larger. The center of the larger area will be marked for a band marching practice area as well as for regular parking during community events. Around the band marching area is a delivery truck/car traffic lane to keep traffic off the band practice area. We will start with cones or temporary barricades to mark the driving lanes in order to keep traffic off of the band marching practice area.
In front of the auditorium, where staff currently parks, we are adding approximately 40 parking spaces and 4 handicap parking spaces. On the Band marching area parking lot, we are adding 110 parking spaces and 4 handicap parking spaces. There will be two entrances to the band parking lot off of 9th street. When we hold community events or school events like graduation we will have about 200 new parking spaces and the 82 parking spaces in front of the school giving us 282 parking spaces.
•Phase 2
Phase 2 adds a sidewalk from Houston Street to Fannin Street on both sides. It adds 2 alley entrances and 1 house entrance on Fannin Street. It adds a sidewalk down the school side of West 7th Street to a dead end into our new athletic complexes. All the sidewalks will have handicapped entrances to the sidewalks. This phase replaces and adds parking to our gym, tennis courts, and administration building. We will have 5 bus parking spaces, approximately 115 parking spaces, and approximately 12 handicap parking spaces.
With the completion of this project, we will have shaped our school facilities into one the best in the state of Texas. Our school facility is focused on the academic advancement of the children in the community. Coupling school facilities, rigorous academic programs, use of technology and academic achievement is amazing. Last year, we had over 10% of our seniors graduate with an Associate Degree from Odessa College, another 25% plus graduate with their “Core 42” for college (42 hours or more towards their associate degree), and over 50% of our seniors received college credit hours towards an associate’s degree. This year, over 85% of all high school students are enrolled in a dual credit class with over 20% of all students on track to get an Industry Certification in welding or Instrumentation, both CTE qualified courses.
