New Monitors to be Installed in Gym Next Year

Currently in the Shawnee Mission East main basketball gym, there are two scoreboards. One above the student section, and one above the parent section. While these scoreboards are just as informative and necessary as a scoreboard in any given high school gym across the country, they don’t provide all the information that a scoreboard would at Allen Fieldhouse or Arrowhead Stadium. The East Fund hopes to change this with the addition of two new video monitors, one next to each of the current scoreboards.

These video monitors would provide player stats and information, halftime videos, game highlights, and maybe even an introduction video, all of which would be put together by students at East.

“All [the media] would hopefully be done in house,” said Shawnee Mission East principle John McKinney. “It would be done by our video announcement students, our journalism students, and our video production students. But we haven’t yet completed the means by which all of the information would get from the classrooms to the boards.”

Although the decision has not yet been made, McKinney is already excited about the possibility for the new video monitors. Parent teacher conferences, college clinic, earth fair, meet the coach night: the possibilities are endless.

“We could promote various products and events, we could use it as advertising for school products, and even for community businesses,” McKinney said. “It would be really exciting and unique. We all feel excited about this project, and that’s why we want to see it happen.”

The project would cost about $60,000, which would come entirely from the East Fund. The decision making process will be long, but McKinney is excited to try to make it happen.

“We just want to make sure we’re doing what’s best for the entire student body,” McKinney said. “But I think this would be a great addition to our gym.”

McKinney said the decision will be made in time for the new monitors to be installed before the start of the next school year, so they will get the most use possible.