Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The fate of the Ed Lee Activities Complex at San Jon Municipal Schools was discussed during a school board work session with architects and the project manager for a new school.
SAN JON - Members of the San Jon Municipal Schools board appeared to lean in favor of building two new gymnasiums for the forthcoming new school instead of preserving the current ones.
Board members had initially wanted to keep the Ed Lee Activities Complex, aka the Ed Lee Gymnasium, and a 1960 gym that's used for plays and the annual carnival.
But during a board work session last Monday with architects, project manager Ian Harmon cautioned about the downsides of trying to renovate an old building to current code.
He said the Mosquero school district opted to keep its current gym while building a new school, but recent renovations revealed mold behind its walls and problems with its foundation and roof.
"It's just a mess," Harmon said, adding that Mosquero officials now wish they'd built a new gym instead.
Owen Kramme, an architect with Formative Architecture that's been hired to design the new San Jon school, said in a videoconference with the board that the roof on the 1960 gym "definitely needs a lot of work."
The newer Ed Lee Gymnasium, built about 20 years ago, also has obsolete air conditioners and periodic problems with roof leaks.
Superintendent Alan Umholtz said if the district kept both its current gyms, the authority might deduct roughly 10,000 square feet from the design of the new school.
Athletic director Bobby Kandel suggested sandwiching a cafeteria between two new gymnasiums, much like the layout at the Wildorado school in Texas.
Board members wanted administrators to measure the current gyms and their seating capacities and compare them to what Formative would propose with new gyms.
They also noted the initial design didn't include a weight room and wanted it added. The current weight room gets a lot of use from residents and students.
Harmon said San Jon officials can ask the state authority to add a weight room to the plan. He said the state will listen to such requests if they're deemed important to a community.
"It's an option. No guarantees," he added.
While acknowledging the cost realities of keeping the current gyms, board members said tearing them down would spark some pushback from residents.
"They are the only things they see," board member Jeremy Allen said. "They're going to ridicule us on the gyms."
"The alumni will be upset," administrative assistant Stacy Kent added.
The board agreed to schedule another work session at 6 p.m. Sept. 16 to make a final decision on the gyms.
State officials and San Jon administrators have agreed to preserve the district's current swimming pool and agriculture building.
San Jon voters last year approved a $250,000 general obligation bond issue that made the district eligible for a large, no-match grant of at least $22 million from the New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority to build a new school.
The authority recommended a new school at San Jon because fixing problems at the current facility - leaky roofs, an obsolete boiler system, poor energy efficiency and other maladies - would have approached $20 million.
The new school would be about 33,000 square feet, designed for a maximum of 150 students. The current campus takes up about 83,000 square feet, built when the district's enrollment was considerably larger.
