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Trustees press for faster repairs at Springstead locker rooms, call condition a Title IX concern
Summary
Board members at an informal Hernando County School Board meeting described Springstead High School locker rooms as outdated, inequitable and in need of quicker renovation; staff was asked to check for existing plans and to pursue interim fixes while design work proceeds.
Trustees at an informal Hernando County School Board meeting pressed district staff to accelerate repairs and planning for the locker rooms at Springstead High School, citing long‑standing inequities and health and hygiene problems.
"Springstead has locker rooms that are very old and quite frankly disgusting," board member Laurie Hawkins said, describing nonfunctional showers and a smaller girls' locker room compared with the boys'. Hawkins asked that locker‑room work be moved up from the district's Phase 5 schedule.
Board member Mrs. Duvall said plans submitted to an earlier board had included comprehensive renovations but that only a cafeteria and guidance‑office changes had been completed. "It is a Title IX deficiency," Duvall said, referencing federal sex‑equity law in school athletics.
Superintendent Pender said facilities staff will be asked to locate previous design plans and to develop cost estimates. "I will talk to facilities about getting a design look for the old design, see if it's still around," Pender said, adding that facilities keeps historical plans and that some interim maintenance can improve conditions before any major renovation.
Trustees agreed on three near‑term steps: have facilities search for previously drawn plans; ask facilities for an additional estimate to incorporate locker rooms and related athletic spaces into the current Springstead expansion design; and identify limited interim repairs (locker replacement, shower repairs, ventilation improvements, hot water) that make spaces functional without spending heavily on work likely to be demolished under a later redesign.
Board members expressed a desire to have a plan or cost estimate within roughly a year to a year‑and‑a‑half and asked staff to present findings in a future meeting. No formal vote was taken at the informal discussion.
The board discussed land and capacity for long‑range growth on the county's east side and acknowledged that larger district phases remain several years out, while saying now is the appropriate time to integrate locker‑room design into current plans to avoid later rework and duplicated architectural fees.
