If everything goes as planned, Gilmer High School will soon have some swanky video scoreboards in its gym and at Huff-Mosley Memorial Stadium.
Director of human resources and facilities Dana Berry shared some updates on the projects at the Gilmer County Board of Education’s Nov. 15 work session.
The Times-Courier also reached out to GHS principal Carla Foley and superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley for addition information.
The search for new scoreboards began back in February with Foley and former superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs exploring different options.
“I had some conversations with Dr. Downs that we really needed to get some new scoreboards, definitely in the gym and definitely at the stadium,” Foley explained. “We started looking around at that point. When she decided she was going to take another position, we kind of put everything on hold.”
The project started to regain momentum when Dr. Ridley was hired over the summer. The district announced a request for proposal in mid-October and received bids from six companies.
“Mrs. Foley and her team got the ball rolling, and I got involved in that because I just wanted to make sure we were following procurement practices, best practices, as well as laws and rules that we needed to follow,” said Berry.
“Throughout this process, we’ve reached out to our band director, our coaches, the soccer team and football team. We’re going to have another meeting with all activities and coaches, and we have it narrowed down to three (companies) now.”
They are exploring scoreboards with varying light emitting diode technologies. Sizes under consideration for the football scoreboard range from 16’x29’ up to 22’x39’.
“What we’re really trying to do is get an apples-to-apples comparison from all companies so the information is truly comparing the same thing,” Foley said. “Of course we want to be good stewards with taxpayer dollars. We’re exploring warranties and what kind of support we’re going to get. There are also different types of software that run different boards.”
For the GHS gym, its proposed scoreboard will hang down in the center pending approval from engineers. It will display video, as well as the usual information such as the clock, score and fouls.
“(Director of operations and maintenance) Bob Soesbee has been working with engineers, and we’re really hoping to be able to do a center hung, real professional looking scoreboard to be able to highlight player stats, as well as advertising,” Berry said.
Preliminary plans are for the scoreboards to be operated by students in Gilmer High’s audio and video technology class. They currently film GHS athletic events and livestream them on YouTube. Foley hopes it will lead to some real-world experience that will serve students beyond high school.
“What we’d love to do is have the kids run the scoreboard as part of that class,” she said. “Before the games are even played, they’ll be able to create different templates, player profiles, stats and get all of that information. Throughout the game, they would be able to put that information up on the scoreboard.
“That’s why the software piece is such a big deal. We want to make sure it’s something the kids will be able to run, and that it will be able to lead them if they wanted to get a job in an industry doing scoreboards or billboards.”
Included in the gym scoreboard package are shot clocks that will be permanently affixed above backboards. GHS will use portable shot clocks this season.
Foley said they hope to have the scoreboard at Huff-Mosley Memorial Stadium installed by May for the class of 2022’s graduation ceremony.
Berry said they are trying to obtain a new sign for in front of the central office, as well as a new sign for GHS as part of the deal.
Information regarding the cost of the projects should be available in the coming weeks. The projects will be funded by the 2015 special-purpose local-option sales tax earmarked for renovations and improvements at GHS athletic facilities.