With kids out of school for the summer months, area school districts continue the process of making upgrades and regularly scheduled maintenance projects to their district facilities.

Monticello schools see the same sorts of projects this year. Dr. Vic Zimmerman is the Superintendent of Monticello schools, he says while he would love some down time for the summer, this is the busiest time of the year for school administrators.

[audio:monticelloschoolprojects1.mp3]A Word From Dr. Zimmerman[/audio]

One of the projects being taken care is a drainage fix in a rock parking lot behind the high school facility in Monticello. Dr. Zimmerman explains the parking sits in a low lying area so the water drains to the parking lot resulting in a lot of standing water. He says the long term hope for the parking lot is to be a hard surface, however he adds for now taking care of fixing the standing water problem is t he quick fix option.

[audio:monticelloschoolprojects2.mp3]A Word From Dr. Zimmerman[/audio]

While funding for a lot of area school projects come from a local sales tax, Dr. Zimmerman points to the fact that Monticello is in Piatt County, and they do not get a lot of people from out of the area coming in. He says bigger counties such as Macon or Champaign can afford to have those taxes in place because a lot of their sales tax comes from people outside of the county.

[audio:monticelloschoolprojects3.mp3]A Word From Dr. Zimmerman[/audio]

Dr. Zimmerman says while some of the projects going on this summer in Monticello may not be exciting or extravagant, he says they are necessary to meet the state regulations and keep the districts buildings current.