By Malcolm Butler
When Lacey Holcomb walked into Simsboro High School on Monday morning, she did so with a smile on her face.
And she was greeted with plenty of other smiles from faculty and staff after the millage proposal was passed Saturday which will fund $10 million in new construction and facility upgrades for the school.
“Everyone is very excited,” said Holcomb, who is completing her first year as the principal at the Lincoln Parish school. “We have done presentations with the faculty and the community (leading up to the vote) and shown off the plans. Everybody was very hopeful it would pass so we could follow through with everything. There is definitely a sense of excitement about it.”
As there should be.
The millage passed by 16 votes Saturday (155-139) with just 12 percent of the eligible voters (294 out of 2,531 according to the Secretary of State website) casting a ballot. The proposal was to renew an existing 5.95 millage (set to expire on December 31) with an additional increase of 5.55 percent for a total of 11.5 percent over the next 20 years.
The $10 million includes funds for new classrooms and Ag-Science shop ($5.7 million), gymnasium and gym lobby renovations/expansion ($2.9M), new lighting on baseball and softball fields ($685,000), new pre-K playground ($100,000), new auditorium seating ($100,000) and additional work on parking lots, drainage, dirt work and landscaping around the school ($490,000).
“For us it means we can really provide our kids with some more opportunities, especially with our Ag Department,” said Holcomb. “We will be able to expand our offerings there. Outside of the bond, we are getting a greenhouse to go along with our new Ag (Department) addition so our kids will be able to do a lot more things within the Ag Department.”
New classes such as welding and wood-working could be offered once the new wing is built.
“With the new chemistry lab we are getting, we will be able to do a lot more things in the STEM field. We will be able to have a science lab for high school and for junior high. It’s some much needed space. We are adding a Spanish teacher this next year and we are running short on classrooms. We really just need some additional space so we can have some more course offerings and have the room to offer those courses.”
Holcomb said the lighting for the baseball and softball fields would be the first item and should be completed by the start of next springs seasons.
Lincoln Parish School Board Superintendent Ricky Durrett, who served as the girls basketball coach (1990-97) and principal (2010-14) at Simsboro High School during his career, said determining a timeline for the rest of the projects would be challenging, almost like putting a puzzle together when it comes to how construction would impact operations.
“We are going to have to see how it affects day to day operation of what is going on at the school,” said Durrett. “Adding a new wing and new Ag (Department) should be fairly easy. Auditorium seating could be done in a relatively easy manner. The gym … we will see when it can be done where it doesn’t impact basketball season. We will have to see if the pre-K playground can be done (and not interfere) in car-line or should we do it during the summer. The biggest thing is how (construction) impacts the day-to-day with as few interruptions as possible.”
Durrett and Holcomb said the hope is to have the entire list completed by the start of the 2025-26 school year.
“It’s going to be great for our students and will give them some facilities that they are proud of,” said Holcomb. “It will better allow us to welcome the community in for events and show off what we have done and let them be a part of us growing.”
