Next year Powell’s three elementary schools will sound better than ever and, as a result, communication between the office, staff and students will improve.

After a six month process, nearly half a million dollars in upgrades will be added to Parkside, Westside and Southside elementary schools sound and intercom systems.

Superintendent Jay Curtis was unsure of the age of the systems in each elementary school but said, “It is very outdated technology.”

Between the three schools there are different sound systems, “and none of them talk to each other,” Curtis said during Park County School District 1’s Dec. 12 board meeting. 

The project’s expenses will be covered under major maintenance funding, which must be used on existing systems within the building. The upgrades to the school’s system will use existing parts and eventually the whole district will be running on the same sound system.

PCSD1 receives roughly $1.5 million per year in major maintenance funding from the state, said Support Services Coordinator Rob McCray, and “there’s quite a few major maintenance projects coming up on top of all of the general major maintenance that we do all year, we didn’t want to tackle all of that in one year.”

The new system will allow teachers to be heard from anywhere in the room, even while using a normal speaking voice thanks to FrontRow, a system that connects a wearable device to a receiver that then connects to speakers in the classroom. Hearing impaired students can also connect to the school’s system via Bluetooth, McCray said, and other speakers in the room will connect to the intercom.

“So right now you're looking at three systems in one room because there's a hearing impaired child, so they have a system, the teacher has a front row system and you have the intercom system. So that's all gonna be together,” McCray said.

Additionally, the sound system has features that will boost security and safety in the district. 

Speakers will also be put in areas of the schools where there previously weren’t any like the breakout rooms. The school can also be broken into corridors so the intercom system can be used selectively.

Putting the proposal together was a six month process that included touring a school that already had the system in place.

“It has been a longtime kicking this can down the road,” McCray said. “Mr. Curtis and I toured the system, the comment that was probably as impactful was the (toured school’s) secretary said, “If you took this system away from me, I would quit tomorrow.”

The installation work will mostly be done over the summer although the contractor, Audio Enhancements, Inc. can work nights during the school year if schedules require it, McCray said. The work would mostly be done in the ceiling panels and would not disrupt the school day.

After the elementary schools are updated, work will eventually be done on Powell Middle School and Powell High School at which point announcements can be made district wide from the administration building.