At Monday night’s Board of Education meeting, which was held at Magnolia High School in the board’s tour of educational areas to hear reports from Local School Improvement Councils, Director of Ancillary Services Brian Jones broke the news to the board that Magnolia’s track would not be completed as soon as was anticipated.

A variety of issues has seemed to stall the installation of the new track, including damages that were discovered on the track from the fallen press box, issues getting asphalt for the track, and, most obvious, the upcoming cold weather.

According to a representative from Heiberger Paving, the paving contractor in charge of the new track installation, the temperature to lay down the product needs to be 50 degrees and above. Additionally, the new asphalt will need to lay for 14 days before Heiberger can even move forward with the next steps in the track installation.

Jones did state that as a latex surface, Magnolia is the first project on Heiberger Paving’s calendar. If they chose to go the route of polyurethane, they would be further down on the list.

However, through further discussions, it was determined that there is a Plan B in the works for Magnolia’s track season.

For now, Magnolia’s track team will be able to practice on New Martinsville School’s track. However, no home track meets will be able to be held on this track, as it is only 300 meters long. Unfortunately, this will mean a loss in revenue from Magnolia’s home track meets.