Wrestling Room
There's been a lot of rumors and talk about whether the district is building a new wrestling room or not as part of the new building. Hopefully, this will clear up some of the questions. First, a wrestling room wasn't included as part of the original project. There are several reasons for this, but the primary one was the district was worried the addition of the wrestling room may have caused the bids to come in higher than the funds that we had available. In addition, one of the optional items that was included in the initial bidding was an enlarged gymnasium. The primary bidding documents included a competition gym that was larger than our current gym, but not as large as we would like. To address this, we included an option for a slightly larger gym to provide more seating and generally more space on the floor. This was an option as we didn't know how the bids would come in, but we wanted to get the most bang for our buck. Fortunately, the bids came in lower than expected and we were able to do some options. What about the wrestling room?
The board was presented with options to expand the Vocational Agriculture/Industrial Technology room or add a wrestling room to the project. On March 27, 2018 a special board meeting was held. Following extensive discussion, the board voted not to make any decision on using the potential extra funds or adding on to the project until the project is complete or nearly complete and the board knows exactly or nearly exactly how much money they may have available before deciding what to do with it. They didn't say yes or no to a wrestling room or Voc Ag/Ind.Tech Addition. They simply said let's not make any decision until we're sure how much money we will have available. At that time, there hadn't been any concrete poured yet or anything, so they didn't know how many change orders they would have and what the final amount available would be. They were being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. Good progress is being made on the building, but there is still a long way to go and who knows what may come up.
At the April board meeting representatives from the FFA Alumni group asked permission from the school board if they could attempt to raise funds privately to expand the Voc Ag/Ind. Tech. Building. Through many generous donors and two large donations from ATEK Industries and NICC, they raised enough to expand that facility without the board having to use any of the project funds to do so. Frankly, that takes one thing off the table that may have competed with the wrestling room project. There has been no other discussion by the board on doing or not doing a wrestling room since the March 27th meeting. They have never said or discussed not doing a wrestling room or anything else with any extra funds that may remain after the project is complete. I am going under the direction that we will bring this up again when the project is finished and we know exactly how much funding is left over. I would estimate this will be some time between next April and June.
Where am I at with this? First and foremost, I believe the wrestling program should be housed in our facility. There is no doubt it creates issues for the student-athletes leaving practice at the CWC and going out into the cold when they are so hot and sweaty in the middle of the winter. In addition, it's our program, they compete in our facility, their practice room should be here. A new wrestling room would be a wonderful addition to our facility and the board had the foresight to do the earth work to minimize costs if and when one is added whether it's after this project or some point in the future. The site is ready to go. However, what if there isn't enough money left after the project is complete or something else comes up that needs immediate attention? I'm looking at other options to get them in our facility. Again, these options would involve spending project money, and I've been directed by the board to wait until the project is complete or nearly complete so they know precisely how much money will be available.
In the end, the board hasn't held any further discussions on the wrestling room and certainly no decisions have been made one way or the other on what to do with any excess funds that may be left over after the project is complete. Stay tuned until next spring as that's when the discussion will likely start.
Building Project Update
Just a few notes on the project. The middle school classrooms are now enclosed and they are installing the stud walls on the upper level. The lower level is being prepped to pour concrete down there sometime in the coming weeks. They are finalizing the roof installation on the locker rooms and will be moving to get the final roof layers on the gym and cafeteria areas. Once those areas are enclosed, they will move to the AG/IT building. They are making a lot of progress, but it's not quite as apparent with everything enclosed. Here's a picture of the inside of the building.
It's hard to believe, but they plan to be substantially complete within 6 months. Stay tuned for more updates.
