HOWLAND — From fresh gym floors to improved signage, one of the Howland Local Schools’ buildings has received a functional makeover.

At Monday’s regular board meeting, the Howland Board of Education heard a brief presentation from Howland Glen Primary School Principal Travis Roth, who noted the building had been remodeled two years ago.

“We have our new gym floors, our new gym floors here and at (Howland) Springs — soon to be at (H.C.) Mines,” Roth said.

Roth said one of the things on his to-do list was new signage for the building, such as ones for the classrooms, which can be swapped around in cases where teachers switch rooms or leave the district, or directional ones for foot traffic to help with navigation.

“We don’t get as much foot traffic as the middle school and high school get, but we do get some foot traffic and the question of ‘Where is this room? or ‘Where is that room?'” Roth said.

Roth said school officials are building upon their initiative of capturing kids’ hearts, explaining that they came up with a building theme, “positive minds make progress,” and message boards.

“The large one is in our (staff) lounge, the small ones are going in each of the classrooms, and these are our affirmation boards,” Roth said. “Positive affirmations go onto the boards from students — staff to staff. Right now, it’s been staff-to-staff for a lot of what’s on the large board.”

Roth said he gave teachers a heads-up about the board, but never mentioned it when it was placed.

Regardless, it only took several days for it to start accumulating positive messages, he said.

“It was kind of cool to see, you didn’t have to say anything — they just started using it,” Roth said. “It’s nice to have the staff have a way to highlight what they’re thankful — and the students too, because we have students that send notes and give notes to their teachers.”