Two and a half months behind schedule, the new gymnasium at Kitty Stone Elementary School finally opened last week for use by the students.The building itself was up and ready on schedule before school began in August, but the aftermath of two hurricanes pushed back the timetable on getting electricity run to the structure, thereby delaying the project.
“They had to pull so many crews away, so they couldn’t run our power,” said Dr. Eric Mackey, superintendent of Jacksonville Schools. “Then the floor took longer than they anticipated because it’s a synthetic rubber floor and it has to have several days to cure and it has to be coated and painted and it just took longer than what we knew.”
Despite the delays, the project has held an enormous impact on the school already, primarily in the area of academics.
“It has had a domino effect on our entire program. At the first of this year, I completely changed our schedule because I was able to move band into the old gym in the afternoon,” said Bob Phillips, principal of Kitty Stone. “Because we were able to move band to the old gym and we were able to schedule sixth grade PE to the middle of the day, we have two additional hours of morning instruction in sixth grade.”
The sixth grade has felt most of that impact, with their academic courses being blocked together in the morning followed by physical education, lunch and their electives in the afternoon.
“We almost had a mess because up until now we’ve been able to take the kids outside,” said Phillips of the band, one of the electives sixth graders are offered.
In past years, the sixth grade band has practiced first thing in the mornings in the cafeteria. With the promise of the new gym, Lisa Gillespie’s group moved to the old gym this year. When construction was delayed it meant cooperation and coordination to ensure space and time for everyone’s needs.
“The PE department has been really generous. They have been taking the kids outside during band time, trying to accommodate us being in the gym,” said Gillespie.
Gillespie now has a space where she can leave chairs and stands set up and the school’s maintenance personnel even put up a white board for her to use, making it more of a classroom. Discount Carpet in Anniston even donated a large remnant to help the stage’s acoustics.
“I’ve been able to have them in a space where I can leave all of my supplies,” said Gillespie. “The good thing is I have a space that I don’t have to take down every day. The chairs stay there all the time.”
Naturally, the PE classes will be the most affected by the new building. In August a new teacher, Derrick Wilson, was added to the PE roster in anticipation of the completed building. Now classes can be split between Wilson and Jennifer Young, the other PE teacher, reducing the class sizes and allowing the children to be more active.
“We were able to hire a second certified PE teacher, which will have a tremendous effect on the student-teacher ratio in PE and the amount of time the kids are engaged because with more floor space they’re going to be able to do more running, more exercising, more games and when they go back to class they’ll calm down and be able to focus on their studies,” said Phillips.
There are still a few finishing touches needed for the new gym. There are no basketball goals yet, nor are they in the budget for the near future, and the coaches’ office still needs glass and furniture, but the most important thing, a large well-lit place for the children to play indoors, is open for use.
