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EDINA, MO -- The Knox County R-1 Schools near Edina are off to a great start this year thanks to the hard work of staff members over the summer.

For a building being nearly 50 years old, you wouldn’t know it. This is all thanks to a lot of hard work over the summer on the aging building.

“Repaired all the brick on the outside of the building and replaced the high school windows. Did a new front entrance on our building here to try and become more energy efficient plus we had some moisture infiltrating through the brick so we had some plaster damage on the inside. This summer was a really busy summer,” said Knox County School Superintendent Andy Turgeon.

And if students thought a lot of work was done this summer, next summer will have even more thanks to the recent bond issue passing. Officials are excited to be able to provide more improvements.

Despite all of this work and less money from the government and state, the budget is still looking great.

“Financially this year we are looking at a balanced budget and that’s always a good thing. We think that we should be able to meet that,” said Turgeon.

They are able to keep the budget in place by reducing expenditures and really focusing their spending where it counts.

One of these areas includes updating their technology to better fit students needs.

“We have put iPad’s and laptops in the teachers hands to try and improve how we deliver the instruction in the classrooms. That is kind of the initiative we are moving towards,” said Turgeon.

Officials say the biggest change over the years in education is keeping up with technology and being able to engage the kids in hands on activities.