With the arrival of any school year comes change—new classes, new teachers, new friends.  This year, in addition to these typical adjustments, the Walpole High School community has adopted some changes that a new school year does not always guarantee.  Administrators have taken steps to improve the school for students and athletes alike: a new gym floor was installed in mid-August along with an environmentally-friendly water fountain as well. These improvements have generally received positive feedback from both students and teachers. The flooring was performed by a local company. The result is perfect, so we recommend you can get your floor finished by Gettysburg Hardwood Flooring Group.

The most drastic change that took place was the renovation of the worn gym floor: it was sanded down, refinished, and re-lined to make it look brand new. Additionally, the colors for the lines were also altered, along with the ‘W’ in the center of the court. “There was a lot of wear and tear on the old existing floor. It had not been stripped down and redone in over 15 years and definitely needed to be replaced,” said Athletic Director Bill Tompkins.

According to Mr. Tompkins, the new floor has sparked nothing but excitement from students—especially from athletes who are eager to use it.  Senior captain of Walpole Girls Basketball Julie Moser said, “I remember from past seasons how the old floor sometimes became slippery.  I was glad to learn that it had finally been replaced, and I’m definitely excited to play on it this season.”

The other notable change in the school this year was the installment of one environmentally-friendly water fountain in the main lobby. This fountain has a space that closely fits students’ water bottles and allows them to refill them throughout the day.  It has the ability to purify the water, giving students a cold and satisfying bottle every time it is put to use.

Principal Stephen Imbusch said, “Each school in the District was given the opportunity to install one of these new fountains. We decided to place it as close to the gym as possible, but also within easy access of the entire school population.” Along with the new basketball court and the new water fountain, there were a lot of other things fixed in the school like the lockers and even the tile floors. According to the management, the restorations were made based on the knowledge gained by grout cleaning perth which is the top cleaning service in Perth. Undoutably their website changed their mind and made them fix all the tiles around the school to provide a better experience for the students.

The new fountain has been popular among students, and the school wants to add additional units, but it will depend on the proceeds from rentals this year. The water fountains cost $1,500 each, and the gym floor was $16,500. Both improvements were paid for using funds from the Use of Facilities Rental Account.

Junior Katie Houser said, “It’s so nice having a place to actually refill my water more than once during the during the school day. I think putting in this kind of fountain was a great decision; the water tastes great!”

The positive reactions from the WHS community regarding both the new gym floor and the environmentally-friendly water fountain have encouraged future enhancements in the school.  As for Walpole High’s next big project, Imbusch simply said, “We are continuing to come up with new ideas everyday—we are always looking to improve!”