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Gym and band-room sizing emerge as contentious trade-offs in bond planning
Summary
Board members debated whether to build a regulation-sized gym and enlarge the band room to meet program needs and host regionals, noting a larger gym and band space would raise costs by roughly ~$1M in one scenario.
A recurring concern at the work session was whether the proposed auxiliary gym and band-room addition should be built to regulation size to allow hosting regional events. Several board members said past projects had been undersized and warned against repeating that mistake.
One board member (S9) pressed the point: "I just really think we regret not getting... regulation size. Despite what we do with the dome, I feel like that's gonna be a regret instantly." Other members and staff discussed seating counts, overlapping seasons, and whether reassigning or adding wrestling rooms could allow creating a larger regulation gym without substantially increasing cost.
Presenters said the base concept included a compact auxiliary gym not designed for major competitions, and noted adding seating or increasing gym footprint would be a material cost driver. They suggested verifying regional seating requirements and exploring whether combined seating across existing facilities and the new construction could meet tournament thresholds before committing to the larger footprint.
On the band room, staff flagged current storage and acoustics issues and asked whether the planned ~2,500-square-foot addition would accommodate a 115-student band; presenters said increasing to roughly 3,400 square feet could be necessary and estimated an additional roughly $500,000 for that increase in one scenario.
Board members asked presenters to return with verified seating counts and options for configuring wrestling and band spaces so the board can weigh these trade-offs during final scope decisions.
