ShawneeDispatch.com

If players know exactly where they are, a couple of dead spots in their school's basketball floor could almost be a home-court advantage.

But dead spots everywhere? Lexington Trails Middle School basketball coach Mike Wiley will be glad to see them go.

"We'll be losing that advantage," he laughed. "But it's a welcome loss."

Replacing the circa-1968 gym floor at Lexington Trails was among capital outlay projects OK'd by the De Soto USD 232 Board of Education earlier this month. The school's matching 1968 bleachers also will be replaced, along with the roof and heating and cooling system at Countryside Learning Center.

Wiley said the once-impressive wooden floor in the Lexington Trails gym had turned into a basketball black hole.

"Kids will be dribbling down the floor and the ball will stay," he said. "It's very, very noticeable."

Students will definitely notice an improvement when they play on a new floor, Wiley said. Being the district's old high school, Lexington Trails was a great facility, he said, and a new floor would help keep it that way.

The new floor will be a raised panel system similar to floors installed this year at Prairie Ridge Elementary and Monticello Trails Middle schools, said district director of facilities Denis Johnson.

Johnson said the Lexington Trails bleachers were to a point of needing constant attention and had become a safety concern. New bleachers will be motorized, like the ones at Monticello Trails and both district high schools.

The third and fourth approved projects will improve Countryside Learning Center, one of the district's oldest facilities and home to House of Children preschool and the Eudora-De Soto Technical Center.

An HVAC system replacement would enable the Countryside to ditch the "albatross" currently used to heat and cool the building, Johnson said.

Johnson said Countryside's heating system was an outdated, inefficient one that had been kept running well past its prime. Rooftop air conditioning units were also outdated and in poor condition, Johnson said.

Johnson said the new units, a combined heating and air conditioning system, will improve efficiency as well as comfort in the building. The warehouse also will get a lighting upgrade and gas radiant heating.

Also to be replaced is the roof over the building's east wing, which dates to 1989.

Johnson presented project bids for Board approval March 7. Contracted companies and costs were approved as follows:

• Lexington Trails gym floor bid by Acme Floor for $78,500.
• LTMS bleachers bid by Heartland Seating for $73,840.
• Countryside HVAC bid by Edwards McDowell for $271,450.
• CLC roof bid by Wray Roofing for $267,000.