Joe Stucker, director of Buildings and Grounds for Hardin County Schools, gave an overview of departmental staffing, recent work‑order statistics and facility projects at the board meeting.

Stucker said the department maintains roughly 2,500,000 square feet of buildings across about 800 acres and described a staff that includes custodial, maintenance, carpentry, electrical, HVAC and plumbing specialists as well as office support. "We help maintain roughly 2,500,000 square foot of buildings, 800 acres," Stucker said.

The department reported last school year there were roughly 4,800 initial work orders received and 4,775 completed. Since the start of the current school year in August, staff received nearly 2,000 work orders and completed about 1,862 of them, Stucker said, and recent weeks saw the number of open work orders fall to a low of about 102.

Nut graf: The presentation was both a performance update and a staffing review: Stucker recognized staff by trade, described preventive‑maintenance work, and noted investments in LED retrofits, lock upgrades and kitchen equipment replacement. He also described steps to collect reliable service-history data to guide replacement decisions.

Stucker and maintenance supervisor Jamie Hawkins credited individual staff members for recent work: carpenters installing door hardware and SRO offices; electricians retrofitting LED fixtures at multiple schools; plumbers replacing faucets to reduce maintenance calls; and a newly hired kitchen maintenance technician who brought refrigeration expertise. The department has scanned paper blueprints after buying a large‑format scanner and said students have participated in the scanning co‑op, with one former student now in architecture school.

Board members asked about co‑op students and scheduling. Stucker said the department has used co‑op students for blueprint scanning and has occasionally hosted maintenance co‑ops, but scheduling and hours can limit hands‑on opportunities.

The Buildings and Grounds slides listed priority projects including districtwide lock changeouts to Best locks, LED lighting upgrades, HVAC replacement projects, plumbing replacements, site work, preventive maintenance and annual events such as "Christmas in the Park." Stucker said inspections performed or coordinated by the department include elevator, boiler, asbestos, sprinkler, fire alarm and custodial inspections.

Ending: The board thanked Buildings and Grounds staff for reducing open work orders and maintaining facilities; Stucker noted this meeting was his last board meeting and the board expressed appreciation for his service.