(KAIR)--More than just tennis courts. 

That sentiment is expressed in the decision of the USD 377 Board of Education to move forward with renovation of the school district's courts that sit in the Atchison County community of Effingham. 

Superintendent Steve Wiseman tells MSC News that while usage of the courts is a goal, it's the fact that they stand as a monument to a late student of the school district that makes their repairs all the more necessary.

“The tennis courts were a memorial to Sandy Oakleaf,” Wiseman explains. “There were community fundraisers involved, and it was a federal land grant project.”

While USD 377 has no tennis team, Wiseman said the courts still need to be taken care of.

Wiseman says it was determined that the best immediate move for maintaining the memorial courts, built in honor of Oakleaf who died in 1988, was to see them resurfaced.

Wiseman believes it’s in the best interest of the district to keep the tennis courts as tennis courts.

The courts were resurfaced in 2006.

“About every 10 years, you’ve got to do some work on them,” Wiseman said. 

It was during the most recent meeting of the USD 377 Board of Education, held last week, that a decision to move forward was finalized, including the acceptance of the bid to make the work happen.

“We accepted bids from Mid-American Courtworks for $11,860 to repair and resurface the courts to get them back up in top notch condition,” Wiseman said. “I’ve also suggested we do some work around the courts as well. I think it’s important we clean that area up. It’s not bad, I just think it needs to be more aesthetically pleasing in terms of the facility and where it’s located.”

Wiseman says that based on the terms under which the courts were constructed, they are for the use of the public on a whole.

The resurfacing of the Sandy Oakleaf Memorial Tennis Courts is planned to begin in the near future.