ConVal’s School Board Thursday discussed a myriad of improvement projects needed at the high school, especially to its science labs.

“The reasons that the labs keep coming up, and I’m going to use a really strong term so you’ll forgive me, is because they are substandard,” Superintendent Kimberly Saunders said. “They are not designed to teach science in 2016.”

The labs are one of the most pressing issues at the high school. She said the work is extensive enough that it will require more than capital improvement dollars to remedy.

“It needs a substantial investment to be improved,” she said.

The board has an outline of all of the improvements that need to be completed on the facility, but it has not solidified any plans or how much the upgrades will cost.

“We need a clear, articulated plan that discusses the educational and physical needs of the high school that doesn’t require us to have to go back at a later date and tear out walls that we have already put in,” said Dick Dunning, a school board member.

School Board Vice-Chairman Pierce Rigrod – who filled in for Chairman Myron Steere – said those plans will need to take shape in the coming months if the board wants to move forward with its concepts by March.

“Most of this discussion tonight was, ‘Do we have supporting information in hand, ready to go forward next March?’” Rigrod said after the meeting. “And the general consensus, and I don’t think it was a full consensus, but we are not quite ready to put the message out (to the public) for the bond.”

During the meeting, the board also unanimously voted to pass a second reading of a video and audio recording policy for instructional and professional development purposes.

The policy was originally adopted in November 2015, as a method to enhance the district’s commitment to the use of technology in the classroom.

It acknowledges video, digital video, and audio recording may be useful for instructional and professional development within the district.

The board asked for public comment regarding the policy, but no one commented on the matter.

Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.