Michael D. Stegman, Superintendent
My wife and I are settling into the community and are very thankful to all those that have made our transition to Trenton so enjoyable. The community has been very welcoming and very seldom if ever are we out around the community without someone stopping to wish us well. We are also thankful for all the activities throughout the community that we can attend. We are very fortunate in Trenton to have these opportunities in our community.
As I write this, we are into the second quarter of the school year. Even though it seems we have just started the school year, we are just a few short weeks from the upcoming Holiday season. The first holiday would be Halloween. I would like to encourage all parents to be very active in your child’s participation in this event. Please make sure that your children are dressed appropriately, as they move throughout our community. Appropriate dress would be, something that is warm (colder weather is being called for on Thursday), something that has bright colors and/or reflective materials, and encourage them to travel in groups if you are not able to be with them. Let’s all have a very safe Halloween this year.
The building project is moving along nicely. Even though you may not see construction yet, that doesn’t mean it isn’t taking place. Matter of fact, the work that is underway now is pier testing. Last week, five 60-foot deep piers were drilled and filled with concrete. Once the concrete sets, the piers will be tested for load stability. This process can take two to three weeks. The huge crane/drill bit you see setting where the Performing Arts Center (PAC) will be built will drill piers for the walls of the building once the testing is complete and a determination is made as to how many and how deep the piers need to be. Other areas that are currently being addressed are the underground plumbing, electrical, and storm drainage.
On a related topic, that many may have heard of is our internet bandwidth issues. There are two pieces to this puzzle that we have had to address. One is whether it was only our traffic that was causing the issue and secondly, if not what was the cause of our outages. What we have determined is that it was a little of both. We have added additional bandwidth to address our computer load issue and in regards to other traffic issues, we have worked with our provider to control any errant traffic that was clogging up our internet line.
In closing, I would say that I am so thankful to the great staff we have at Trenton R-IX. This includes certified and non-certified employees. They all work very hard on a daily basis to see that our students are getting the very best education that we can provide.