Competition gym, weight room among proposed Belle Plaine improvements

BELLE PLAINE — Residents in the Belle Plaine Community School District are being asked to approve the sale of up to $7.95 million in bonds in November for a new gym, weight room, locker rooms and cafeteria.

The remaining $6 million of the $14 million project will be paid using sales tax money, said Belle Plaine Superintendent Chad Straight.

The project would add a competition gym, a weight room and locker rooms to the junior high/high school, said Straight. The gym will seat 1,000 spectators and its floor will hold three wrestling mats, whereas the current gym holds only two.

The weight room will be more than twice the size of the current weight room, according to preliminary plans. Space for a dedicated football locker room would be accessible from the outside, and a coach and referee office and changing space would be added.

A walking track would circle the upper level of the gym.

The addition would extend into an open lot off the west side of the school and would connect at the upper level, said Straight.

“We’re going to be able to do that without raising property tax.”

Also included in the project is construction of a cafeteria at the elementary school. Students currently eat in the gym. Consequently, the gym is not available for physical education classes during the lunch hour.

The cafeteria addition to Longfellow Elementary School will have space for 100 students, according the school district. The addition will be built between the gym and the fifth and sixth grade classrooms and will provide an activities entrance to the school for events in the gym.

The proposed facility improvements came out of a needs assessment survey from about two years ago, said Straight.

“Out of that came our 4-day school week plus the bond issue,” said Straight. Belle Plaine began using a 4-day calender this fall.

The most requested items on the survey were air conditioning in the high school gym, which was completed using normal funding, and the weight room, second gym and cafeteria.

It’s been a long time since Belle Plaine has asked residents for bonding, said Straight. “I think the last bond issue was 2009.”

The bond issue needs 60% of the vote to pass. Construction would begin a couple of yeas afterward, Straight said.

Project details are available at belle-plaine.k12.ia.us/.