Central students to get new gym

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By Olivia Moran | Saturday, May 26, 2007 4:43 PM CDT | () comments

Students and faculty gather at the site of the new auxiliary gym for a ground breaking ceremony Friday at Davenport Central High School. (Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES)

Davenport Central High School held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday afternoon in celebration of the beginning of construction of a $3.8 million newly renovated gym.

Central Associate Principal Jenni Weipert said the new gym has been one of the school’s top priorities for the past two years. George Marshall Gym is more than 75 years old and is intensely used by students nearly every night. With the growing number of activities taking place in the facility, Weipert said as of now, there simply aren’t enough courts.

“We don’t have a lot of space right now to run all of our activities and get our kids out at a reasonable time at night,” she said.

Weipert said additional courts will allow all teams to have equal practice time and open up more opportunities for physical education classes.

The project is expected to be finished in early 2008. But the Davenport School District has more than a few additional projects to focus on, said Karen Farley, the district’s communication specialist.

The Lincoln Academy of Integrated Arts’ project is set to be finished at the beginning of the upcoming school year, Davenport West High School’s science lab renovation should conclude around the same time, and Davenport North High School’s project was recently approved, she said.

Farley said that although there are many smaller projects going on in the district, these are the major ones and that all four will receive equal construction time.

The new gym received its funding from the Local Option Sales and Services Tax, or LOSST. Farley said projects that receive funding from LOSST are chosen based on student need, equity in terms of accessibility and the building strength of the school’s curriculum.

“One of the advantages of being a large school district is that we can shoulder a lot of projects at the same time,” she said.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.