New building at Winchester to be named for Kerr Ballard

By Editor | July 13, 2026 |

By BETH ZUMWALT

The new all-purpose room at Winchester Elementary will be named the Kerr Ballard Legacy Center.
The building will provide recess and physical education room while the new gym is being built. In January, the old gym at the school was discovered to have critical structural problems and was torn down last week.
The new all- purpose building will be majorly funded by a one million dollar bequeath from a couple who are remaining anonymous at this time.
“They offered us $1 million on two stipulations,” Jeff Abell, superintendent of the district, said. “The first was that all of the money go toward the all-purpose room and the second was that it be named after Kerr Ballard.”
James “Kerr” Ballard, son of Wes and Lori Ballad, was 11 years-old and a student at Winchester Elementary when he died in a off-road vehicle accident near his home, near Murrayville. The accident happened July 13, 2021.
The youngster’s death hit the community hard. Ballad was known as a kind, thoughtful boy. During Covid, he created a on-line message, using his mom’s Facebook page as his pulpit.
“I wasn’t here when that happened, but, from what I’ve been told he was an extra-ordinary boy,” Abell said.
Able said construction will start soon on the building. Midwest Contractors of Girard submitted the lowest bid of $1.545,700 for the building.
“We know it is ambitious, but, we hope to have it ready for occupancy when the students come back after Christmas break, in January, 2027.
Meanwhile the West Central Cougars will play their athletic contests at Bluffs per the schedule and for games that were scheduled to be played at Winchester, those will be played in Meredosia.
“Meredosia co-ops all of their sports and plays maybe one or two games a year in their gym,’ Abell said.
Meanwhile, the Winchester board is at a standstill on replacing the gym.
“We are going to put a referendum on the November ballot asking the taxpayers to approve a tax levy that will allow us to build back a gym with some improvements. If the referendum fails, then we will issue Life, Health, Safety Bonds and according to their stipulations, the gym will have to be built back exactly as it was, no improvements.”
Able said although the old gym was deemed unsafe to use, crews were able to salvage the equipment, including the scoreboard, the video board, the shot clock, the back boards and a few other items.
“It was not cost effective to remove the bleachers,” he said. “They were made for an elementary school, so they were smaller than average bleachers and had less leg room. Removing them, storing them and reinstalling them was just too costly.”