Jackson Heights weight room discussed at B.O.E. meeting

Plans to move the weight room at Jackson Heights High School to a new building were discussed further at the Jackson Heights USD 335 Board of Education meeting on Monday evening, but no consensus was reached on how to pay for its construction, whether it involves using existing district funds or issuing a bond.

The cost of a new weight room building at JHHS has also gone up, board members noted, as JHHS Principal Derek Smith estimated that to build a weight room building that would be “a premier weight room that we’re showing off to everybody” would cost the district about $900,000.

Moving the school’s strength and conditioning program to a new building would also free up space for two classrooms, Smith added, although some repairs would need to be made to the “bus barn” area where the weight room is currently located — specifically roof repairs over the existing weight room and bus barn.

“If we cleaned it out in there and knew we had no more water issues, and also fixed the floor, I think we could make it into really nice classrooms,” Smith said. “Just because it’s a basement area doesn’t automatically mean it’s a bad space, because it is a foundation for our building. But we still need to maintain it.”

Board members noted at their May meeting that a $294,250 estimate had been received from Morton Buildings for construction of a “rough finish” building without electric or water utilities and asked for more bids.

Smith said he had spoken with area contractors about providing those utility services, and their estimates pushed the cost of a new building closer to the $900,000 estimate he provided on Monday. Another factor in the cost of a new weight room building is that it will contain all-new weight-training equipment, which Smith said would cost about $50,000.

Regarding how to pay for it, District Superintendent Jim Howard said he “wouldn’t want to do it in one jump,” utilizing the district’s capital outlay funds. Many school districts use capital outlay funds for construction projects, Howard said, but if too much is taken from the fund at one time, the district may not have enough cash on hand to cover payroll and other expenses.

“You want to have a certain amount of cash in there,” Howard said. “Taxpayers don’t pay us their taxes for us to hoard it.”

Board member Michelle Schierling urged fellow board members to come up with a plan to pay for a new weight room building, saying that she did not “want to talk about it for months and months and months and never act.”

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