Photo by LEAH INGRAM EAGLE
David Calhoun discusses the Chelsea High School gym project during the June 18 precouncil meeting.
During the June 18 precouncil meeting Chelsea City Hall, three guests were in attendance to participate in a continued discussion of a proposed new gym at Chelsea High School.
David Calhoun, Assistant Superintendent of Operations for Shelby County Schools, along with Chelsea High School athletic director Michael Stallings and Principal Brandon Turner all addressed the council to discuss specifics of the project and how it would benefit the students and athletes at Chelsea High School.
“The gym project was talked about once upon a time, got shelved for a while, and now has come back up,” Calhoun said.
Since the first rendering several months ago, the project has been scaled down from two levels to one, which would cut down on the cost of the project.
The new rendering is a 36,000 square foot building and took into consideration the needs of many of the school’s athletic and auxiliary programs.
The gym capacity is just over 2,000, compared to the current gym at 1,800. It would also include six locker rooms and a multipurpose room.
“There are multiple teams that practice and play at the high school, and there has long been a need for another gym space to prevent kids from having to practice at 8-9 p.m. at night waiting to get into the one gym,” Calhoun said.
Also included is a reversible concession stand, which would serve both indoor and outdoor events.
Calhoun noted that many middle schools throughout the district use the high school gyms to play games and the addition of a second gym would provide more opportunity for Chelsea Middle School to host their basketball and wrestling events.
“A lot of sports don’t pay for themselves, and having two different venues has the potential to turn non-revenue sports to pay their way and take stress off the athletic budget and general budget,” Calhoun said.
While the project has yet to go to bid, Calhoun estimates it could possibly be around $338 per square foot, totaling $12.5 million.
“The only way to know is to take it to bid and see,” he said. “We’ve rejected some bids because the price was too high. But if there’s an interest to kick the tires on this project and see where the cost is, the only way to know is to bid it.”
He shared that Superintendent Lewis Brooks has pledged to Mayor Tony Picklesimer what the Shelby County Board of Education can do is to absorb the engineering and architecture fees, which is typically around 10% of the total project. He has also pledged an additional 10% for the project.
Principal Brandon Turner said when considering different kinds of projects he thinks of what will reach the largest amount of students, and said this gym could impact the largest number of students of any project that’s been done at the high school.
“A lot of high schools of our size do have an auxiliary space,” Turner said. “This would be a great asset to us for basketball, volleyball, wrestling, cheer and auxiliary, having two spaces to practice and also for games.”
Turner added that the multipurpose room is critical addition to that, especially for wrestling, cheerleading and the band auxiliary programs.
Athletic Director Michael Stallings said he knows the impact that the weight room project had and said this project could be “transformational for our athletic programs.”
“The current space doesn’t support the needs we have,” Stallings said. “Teams have to practice at 5:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. and this would put everyone on a better schedule, allowing us to host more than one event.”
Mayor Tony Picklesimer said the money was passed in this year’s one cent education fund budget to cover the city’s portion of this project.
