Sulphur Springs ISD Superintendent, Patsy Bolton, center, explains the building process to begin
this week at the Sulphur Springs High School campus, as board members, Jackie Brice, Judy Gillem,
and Carolyn Thomas look on.



"Shovels of Celebration and
Thanksgiving"

by: Bobby McDonald

"These are shovels of both celebration and thanksgiving," expressed Sulphur Springs ISD Superintendent Patsy Bolton, as she welcomed the crowd assembled at groundbreaking ceremonies, at noon on Thursday. "We celebrate for the many, many lives of students that these facilities will aid and say a prayer of thanksgiving for the voters of the district who passed the bond election to afford these expansion projects!"

School board members and other administrators joined Bolton in turning the soil at SSHS.

Bolton and a large crowd of teachers, administrators, and board members gathered to turn the first shovels of dirt on the improvement and expansion facilities at Sulphur Springs High School, where repair to the building will begin immediately and a new music and fine arts facility will be constructed, for use beginning with the 2007 school year.

Following the ceremonies at the high school, personnel moved to the Early Childhood Learning Center, where they turned the spades for the new expansion project, that will add eight new classrooms to that campus. "We'll be able to house all of the students who should be on this campus, when these classrooms are completed," explained Bolton. "This will prevent busing students from the Administration Building for instruction, as has been the norm, in the past."

Bolton removes her "hard hat" and points out the area where eight new
classrooms will be added at the Early Childhood Learning Center, on Loop 301.

Bolton also announced that the local district had received an additonal $229,000.00 grant to aid in the construction process at the Early Childhood Learning Center and that sidewalks had already been poured and the playground equipment was in the process of being moved to make way for construction.

Bolton, left, stands next to Hillary Young, with SSISD Head Start, and Principal Sherrie Finney, as
they aid the board members in ground breaking cermonies, Thursday at noon, at the Early Childhood
Learning Center.

Both projects were approved in the bond election that was passed by Sulphur Springs ISD voters in the autumn of 2005.

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