The maintenance and facilities crew of the Ripon Unified School District did plenty this summer to the get the campuses ready in time for the new school year.

Andy Strickland, who is Director of Facilities, Operations & Safety Services, provided a rundown of those efforts in his summer project report at Monday’s school board meeting.

For starters, he noted the work at Ripon High included the repaving of the front parking lot along with the installation of a safety fence along the front office, creating a new administration office for the vice principals, and adding a new Conex container for the JROTC program.

His team also trimmed the trees in the teacher parking area and installed drip irrigation for the planters at the new Career and Technical Education building.

 Other projects consisted of:

·         Colony Oak School – The trees along Murphy Road, the principal’s office was extended, and walls in the multi-purpose building received a fresh coat of paint.

·         Ripona Elementary – The trees along the campus were trimmed while an accent wall was added to the principal’s office and work was conducted on the main landscape sprinkler system.

·         Park View Elementary – The staff bathroom got a fresh coat of paint along with replaced sinks and countertops, the area behind the administration offices was landscaped, and over 200 sprinklers were replaced. In addition, the soccer field will soon be leveled using the recently delivered materials.

·         Ripon Elementary – New flooring and paint were installed in the new TK classroom while new brick, dirt, and bark were added around the tree in the TK/Kinder playground. The crew also fixed the hinges and cabinet doors in multiple classrooms.

Strickland announced the arrival of the new IC electric wheelchair accessible school bus, which also required putting in the Autel charging station, and “is successfully charging,” he said.