Community donors praise new high-school sound system; speaker urges plan for upkeep

Ty Christensen, a Quincy resident and volunteer with the performing-arts center sound-system fundraising committee, told the board the committee exceeded its $50,000 goal and raised more than $70,000 to upgrade the high school auditorium audio system.

Christensen said the system's first public use was the fall production of Little Women and that the current run of Hello, Dolly! is showing the "full benefit" of the upgrade. He identified a number of school staff and community members who helped the effort, including Dr. Nick Bergman, Tom Harris, Pia (district staff member), Sean Fuller and Justin Blaylock, and thanked Principal Felicia Becker for early support.

Christensen asked the district to plan now for long-term care of the upgraded digital media system: routine maintenance, periodic updates, troubleshooting procedures, operator vetting and training. "I would encourage the board and the school district staff to be as forward thinking as possible when it comes to the digital media systems that are present in the performing arts center now," he said. "There are more components that can potentially fail down the road. There's more complexity. So along with that comes an increased level of responsibility."

Board members and staff responded that a close working relationship between volunteers and district technicians already exists and that the district will continue conversations about maintenance schedules, operator training and ownership of ongoing responsibilities. The resident who spoke invited board members to attend a performance to observe the system in use.

The remarks came during the public-comment portion of a regular board meeting; the board took no formal action on the sound-system maintenance request at the session.