Hays High School has been planning improvements on the campus since the spring of last year. With the school being vacant of students due to Covid-19, construction was able to be moved up so it could be completed sooner.

There are many small changes being made, along with more noticeable ones. One of the changes that will be noticed by the public is the replacement of the west basketball goal and volleyball standards in Gym A. The side goals and nets will also be replaced for installation purposes.

“I’m very excited for the changes and what we have planned moving forward,” athletic director Lance Krannawitter said. “They will be immediate improvements noticed by everybody from the get-go.”

Another change is the side bleachers in Gym B. The old bleachers will be replaced with portable, school-colored bleachers that can be cleaned underneath. HHS plans on replacing the bleachers on the ends of each court in the following year.

“I’m very happy about the new volleyball and basketball goals in Gym A, and the bleachers in Gym B,” Krannawitter said.

The weight room and rooms in the E building will also be experiencing some renovations. In the weight room, there is a strip of turf used for many drills that exercise skill and speed that is very worn out and will be replaced this summer. In the E building, several classrooms will be fixed for use. The computer graphics classes and audio and video communications classes will move to newly renovated rooms specifically made for those classes.

“The HHS remodel is a plan that has been under development for several years,” instructor Chris Dinkel said. “When the school bond failed in 2016, as a technology educator, I felt that our programs, somehow someway, had to move forward,”

Construction should be finished over the summer and well before school starts up again in the fall, hopefully. HHS faculty and students are looking forward to seeing the changes and for some getting to use them.

“We feel these changes will provide our students and teachers a greater opportunity with dedicated areas for their curricular areas,” assistant principal John Linn said. “The Hays High students will enjoy the upgrades as we move forward.”