As this school year comes to a close, while reflecting is important, it is time to start looking toward what the future will bring. This summer, the school will start construction on a new gym that will be connected to the south end of the school. Assistant principal and athletic director Mike Rasmussen explains the reasoning behind the decision and the layout for the process.
“From a facility standpoint, we have multiple programs that require additional space. [So] it would be very helpful to have another gym. And so [do] each of the other schools—I don’t recall the order in which they went, but now it’s our turn to get ours built,” Rasmussen said.
The gym isn’t expected to be finished until August 2026. Until then, how the south end of the school is used will have to change.
“That’s where the inconvenience part comes into play, because they’re going to fence [off] basically [the whole area], we won’t have access to 90% of the parking lot out back,” Rasmussen said. “You will not be able to come in through those South Gym doors.”
The news is quite shocking to many students, especially those who participate in sports and utilize the space to more easily get to practice. Sophomore Nandini Desai has used the current auxiliary gym for volleyball these past two years and uses the athletic parking lot every day as part of her regular routine.
“I personally park in the athletic parking lot, so that’s going to be a really big change for me to not be able to park there. And I really don’t appreciate that,” Desai said. “Because that means that, especially getting into school and getting out of school, there’s going to be so many more cars trying to get out of the student parking lot.”
Although parking will be a struggle, Rasmussen said the future benefits will make it all worth it. Not only will there be a new aux gym, but reconstruction will be done on part of the current building.
“[There is going to be] a brand new entryway, so we’ll have a canopy that goes out, and there’ll be much more room. There’ll be like a big lobby in there because that’s where all of our traffic for games and everything comes in,” Rasmussen said. “It’ll be much more conducive to holding events, and we’ll be able to host multiple events in terms of tournaments because we’ll have more space.”
Images of the new gym have not been released, but Rasmussen said community members can expect it to be what Rasmussen says is a happy medium.
“The contractors and the designers really took into consideration the aesthetics of what we currently have, so that it blends. The south side of our campus is really pretty with all the windows that are on the back,” Rasmussen said. “We didn’t want to put a brick building and negate and take away all those windows that are on the back.”
With all these major changes, some consider whether this is truly a good investment. Desai said she believes the school should focus on updating the current gym or focusing on other areas of the school rather than extending it.
“I feel like if we are going to do something with the gyms, we should just improve the ones that we have,” Desai said, “Like the air conditioning and the bleachers, at least in the smaller gym and the floors — I guess it’d be good once it’s built, but I just think that it’s not worth it.”
While the gym is being constructed, students may debate whether or not it is worth it, but with the school expecting large growth in the next few years, it is guaranteed to be used. Rasmussen said with many sports and activities already using the current space within the two gyms, extra space will help adjust practice scheduling.
“I think, again, there’ll be a short-term inconvenience, but the long-term benefit will certainly outweigh [it],” Rasmussen said.
