Ouachita Parish Schools held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday at Richwood High School to dedicate the new multi-purpose building and covered pavilions on campus.
The 7,000-square-foot multi-purpose building includes meeting areas, two ROTC classrooms, practice space for Richwood High’s cheerleaders, dance team and band, a mini-kitchen and storage facilities.
“This facility was made possible by the commitment of the Ouachita Parish School Board,” Richwood principal Dr. Sharilynn Loche said. “It will serve several purposes for our students, staff, faculty and community, so we are so fortunate to be able to finally share this facility.”
The ribbon cutting ceremony kicked off a weekend of homecoming festivities at Richwood High.
The $2.6 million project was funded from an Eastside bond issue passed by the voters of Ouachita Parish. The multi-purpose building and pavilions were designed by Cedrick Hemphill from Land 3 Architect Inc. Grindstone Construction was the contractor on the project.
“We want to thank the people of East Ouachita Parish for voting to support projects like this and many others that we have going on,” Ouachita Parish Schools Superintendent Todd Guice said. “We are blessed to live in a community that is so supportive of us and we appreciate that.”
School officials conducted a tour of the multi-purpose facility for a crowd that included representatives from the Monroe Chamber of Commerce, West Monroe/West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce, Richwood Business Alliance, State Rep. Adrian Fisher, the Ouachita Chapter of the NAACP, Richwood High alumni and Richwood Mayor Gerald Brown.
“I’m excited to see how Ouachita Parish Schools is pouring into our children,” Brown said. “That is part of our responsibility as a community and I’m proud to be a part of that process.”
The building tour concluded with renderings for a proposed football field house and press box renovation at Richwood High, which will be considered in the next Ouachita Parish School Board meetings.
Ouachita Parish Schools also recently completed several additional projects in District E, including a new covered pavilion and multi-purpose room flooring at Robinson Elementary, an exterior window refurbish at Swayze Elementary and a cafeteria renovation and new multi-purpose room flooring at Shady Grove Elementary.
Construction is underway on a new multi-purpose building at Richwood Middle.
“It’s not because of the foresight of this school board, but the people who preceded us that allowed these projects to come to fruition,” said Ouachita Parish School Board member Harold McCoy, who represents District E.
“There are a plethora of things we have on the agenda that are going to benefit our schools and the children we serve.”
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