WESTLOCK – It’s been a flurry of activity at Busby School, as construction of the new, $2 million gym has picked up steam this spring.
Anticipation is growing amongst students and staff as the project inches closer to its summer completion date. After years of waiting school officials are thrilled to see construction well underway.
“For probably over 20 years now there’s been plans to try to build a gym here, so this has been a very long time coming,” said Busby School principal Angie Bachand. “Now that the actual structure is there and you can see how big it is, it’s really exciting.”
The concrete walls of the new gym were constructed in mid-March with the 22 concrete panel roof installed over several days beginning April 1. The original gym was built in 1986 as an addition to the school, which was built in 1947.
While much progress is being made on the construction, the new gym is still on schedule and budget to be completed later this summer.
“Everything’s within schedule even though … we had to keep clearing away the snow before we could put in the foundation work for the walls,” said Pembina Hills School Division director of facilities, Tracy Tyreman. “We’re looking at the end of July to have it completed.”
The current gym, which sits at 188-square metres, compared to the 485-square metres for the new one, is still in use and will undergo some changes once the new gym opens. That transition is expected to take place over the summer to lessen the disruption for students.
“We’re going to make (the old gym) into a music room with an additional washroom or two as well as some more coat and backpack storage for our students — it’ll be additional space for the kids to hang up their coats and backpacks and there’ll be some extra storage in that area as well,” said Bachand. “I’ve been assured that there’ll be no interruptions to the kids access to the gym, except for the occasional times we’ve had to leave because of construction, but nothing major.”
While the impact of the construction has been minimal, noted Bachand, there has been some impact to recess and some of the play structures at the school including the loss of a swing set and a tire swing and no access to the sandboxes or school garden at the moment. Despite that, staff and students have fared very well.
“We’re very fortunate, we have a lot of space for the kids to play so we’ve been able to move them around to the back (of the school) and they’ve been very flexible,” said Bachand. “Families and kids …are just so excited about getting a new gym that we’re willing to put up with a little growing pains now in order to have this fantastic gym that will open up some more options to us.”
Some of those options could include allowing other user groups to use the new facility and having a large enough gym to host other sporting events.
“We are excited about potentially renting it out to adult volleyball leagues and afterschool programs for kids,” said Bachand. “I think we’re most excited that we get to host volleyball and basketball tournaments moving forward because our gym is so small, we just don’t have the regulation space to have spectators and official sized courts and nets so that’s going to be something that’ll be new to Busby School, and it’ll be exciting for our sports programs especially.”
The new gym will also include several new features such as hardwood flooring, a big digital scoreboard, a divider curtain and possibly a portable stage. There will also be an outdoor bouldering wall, which is similar to an indoor climbing wall but is smaller and closer to the ground, for students to use.
In addition, some major landscaping around the school will be done after the gym is complete and the entire exterior of the school will also be getting a new look — one that matches the new gym.
“They’re going to do a whole façade around both structures so that they match and it looks like one complete unit,” explained Bachand, adding that the school will celebrate the new gym in the fall with a grand opening as they welcome students back to class in September.
“It’s been really exciting for (the students) to see first-hand, how big it’s going to be and the construction and the effort that goes into it,” said Bachand. “I think there’s a deeper appreciation in a sense that they get to sit and watch this unfold before their eyes. They see that it doesn’t happen in two weeks, that it’s going to take an entire school year and I think they’re very, very excited … there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and there’ll be a big payout — we get this beautiful new gym that they’ll be able to play in.”
