BY JORDAN TROUTMAN

Wheaton putting $504K into 120×120 building

The Wheaton school district has been busy with relating to the construction of the new tornado shelter, and now the new field house project is ramping up.

Trish Wilson, Wheaton superintendent, said the dirtwork will start in the next couple of weeks.

In May, the Board of Education accepted a bid from Superior Metals for $466,183.61 to construct the field house, and $37,800 from Seven Valleys Construction Company for the dirt work.

“We will be using some ESSER III funds and some district funds,” Wilson said. “The use of ESSER III funds has been approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.”

Wilson said the dimensions will be 120-feet-by-120-feet, and it will have three basketball courts and three volleyball courts, and possibly two or three track lanes.

“It will be used for physical education classes during the day and for all sports practices throughout the year, including youth sports,” she said. “It can be a space for meetings or community events.”

Wilson said the field house will be located on the big lot beside the softball field.

“We evaluate our programs every year, and for several years, physical education teachers and coaches have noted on those evaluations that they need more space,” she said. “More space to teach [means] practices are not late every night.

“It has been tough to get practices scheduled for just school events and when you add on youth sports practices, someone has been practicing late at night. During the day our classes are stacked on top of each other.”

Wilson said currently a high school physical education class in the gym at the same time an elementary class is in there.

“[The field house] will also allow us to offer some classes we haven’t been able to due to lack of space,” she said.

The total cost of the field house comes in at $503,983.61.