A week or so ago, I visited George Andrews at York Catholic High School to talk about his decision to leave the school at the end of the school year.

After we talked for a few minutes, he took photographer Chris Dunn and I on a quick tour of the school. Along the way, he pointed out various renovations and upgrades that had happened in the 1958 building during his 14 years.

One interesting point was that many of the upgrades were done using recycled materials or materials obtained from other districts.

For example, he pointed out the bleachers in the gymnasium. They had original wood, but the underpinnings came from an ice rink in Philadelphia. The only new pieces were green safety railings. New bleachers would have been $150,000 to $160,000, but this cost the school about $80,000.

Auditorium seats, he said, were a little of the old and new – old frames with padding and upholstery added.

In the new weight room, some equipment came from area gyms that closed. To get other pieces, the school sold donated equipment to buy better.

He pointed out the window to bleachers at the stadium. Steel for those came from old Dallastown Area School District bleachers. And the desks – those came from Spring Grove Area School District.

“We try not to pay full price for anything,” Andrews said.

Certainly, there were some upgrades that can’t be secondhand. New gym lights were installed, but they’ll be more efficient and save on energy costs, he said. Same goes for new windows.

It was nice to see a school official clearly excited to have been able to upgrade items without breaking the bank. Andrews has to keep an eye on costs – if he keeps expenses down, that keeps tuition down.