If you have driven past the school recently and felt like something was missing, your eyes were not deceiving you. In July, we removed the old electronic sign from the elementary playground, and more recently we removed some trees in front of the middle school building. All of this was done to prepare for the installation of a brand-new, modern sign. We will also be refreshing our street-side landscaping to give our community and campus visitors the warm welcome they deserve.
The old electronic sign, you might have noticed, had not been working correctly for nearly a decade, and the age of the sign did not provide us with the opportunity to fix it because replacement parts and software updates have not been available for many years. Additionally, the location of the sign was not ideal since it was part of the elementary playground. While the safety of our students was our main concern, putting the sign within range of a kickball game also did not help its future longevity.
Mr. Michael Newcomer, elementary principal, said, “I'm excited that the district will be upgrading the sign for increased communication and moving it to create a safer playground space for the elementary students.”
With those concerns in mind, we will be moving the sign to a location in front of the middle school. In order to do that, however, we had to remove some of the trees along Main Street. Most were Bradford Pear trees, which Ohio deemed an invasive species in 2023 and are no longer permitted to be planted. In the months ahead, we will be planting new trees by the north parking lot to maintain the look of our campus.
One of the trees we had to remove was a Red Sunset maple planted years ago to honor alumnus Mr. Robert Hart. Before we considered removing that tree to move the sign, we reached out to ask Mr. Hart’s children if they would allow us to plant a new tree honoring him in the Medieval Garden between the elementary and high schools. With their blessing, we have since planted a new Red Sunset maple tree there and are awaiting the arrival of the new commemorative marker.
We also appreciate the support of our community to help us make these improvements. Van Buren Mayor Mr. Ed May assisted throughout the planning and execution of this project, and FASTSIGNS of Findlay completed the project at cost, which equaled a donation of $31,846.00 to our school district. Thank you!
As you drive by our campus over the next couple weeks and see the new sign going up, please know we are continuing to invest in creating a safer, more welcoming campus for our students and community.