October 14, 2016 at 5:25 p.m.
Remodel ready
Request leads to attention for girls locker room
Remodel ready
Over the course of more than 40 years, Jay County High School has gone through a variety of changes and upgrades.
The building, which opened in 1975, had new terrazzo floors installed. The heating, ventilation and cooling system was replaced. The pool was remodeled and expanded, and an auxiliary gym was added.
In all that time, the girls’ locker rooms have not gotten much attention.
That’s about to change.
Jay School Board agreed last month to move forward with the planning process to remodel the locker rooms on the southwest side of the main gym.
Why is the renovation necessary?
“Look at it,” said Patriot junior Chloe Trissel during a tour this week.
“Look at the floor," added senior volleyball player Abby Barcus. "Look at everything else. It’s pretty bad.”
The floor has a two-tone look that was not in the original design. Sections had to be cut out in order to fix a plumbing problem. They were filled in with concrete and painted in a different shade of blue from the rest of the floor.
The lockers, which are orange and blue, are original to the facility. Some of them are difficult to open. Some can’t be closed without a girl putting her full weight on them. Some have bottoms falling out.
While female athletes get full-sized lockers, physical education students are left with smaller ones — about the size of a couple of shoe boxes. So, backpacks either get left in regular school lockers or remain out in the open in the locker room. Some students bring trash bags in order to be able to utilize the small storage areas.
The showers are not inviting. Few girls use them, in part because of the "nasty" floors.
The configuration of the benches and lockers leaves little room to maneuver.
There’s no space to have a decent team meeting.
“For basketball some of us sit on that bench,” said sophomore Shelby Caldwell, pointing to the bench nearest the entrance to the locker room, “and then everybody else has to gather around on the floor.”
Barcus and Trissel said the volleyball team does the same.
If all goes well, that won’t be the case during the 2017-18 seasons.
Architects from Barton-Coe-Vilamaa, a firm that has worked with Jay Schools on previous projects, presented the school board preliminary drawings last month of what the remodeled facility could look like. They largely mirror the boys’ locker rooms, which were remodeled about a decade ago as part of a larger construction project.
Drawings show separate physical education, visitors’ and home locker rooms, all built with an open concept — full-sized lockers along the outside walls with built-in ledges to serve as benches. The home locker room would have a separate entrance directly from the gym. Public restrooms would also be remodeled as part of the project, leading to the addition of a family restroom in addition to the women’s and men’s.
The design incorporates suggestions from Barcus, Trissel and Caldwell, who have served as representatives for the school’s female athletes.
“We want it open, so there’s more room, less crowding. We want the PE locker room and the team locker room separate, like it is over there," said Trissel, referring to the boys locker room.
The impetus for the project came in August, when Barcus approached the school board. She had been talking with a couple of 2016 graduates this summer and the state of the locker rooms came up. She decided to try to do something about it, and in a brief statement in front of the board she asked if the locker room facilities for female athletes could be improved and requested a meeting with interim superintendent Brad DeRome to discuss the issue.
DeRome spoke to Barcus following the meeting and later toured the girls’ locker room with JCHS principal Chad Dodd and athletics director Steve Boozier. They couldn’t help but agree that something had to be done.
“There’s not a one of you who would say it’s not time to do," DeRome told the board at its next meeting. "I assure you of that."
The building, which opened in 1975, had new terrazzo floors installed. The heating, ventilation and cooling system was replaced. The pool was remodeled and expanded, and an auxiliary gym was added.
In all that time, the girls’ locker rooms have not gotten much attention.
That’s about to change.
Jay School Board agreed last month to move forward with the planning process to remodel the locker rooms on the southwest side of the main gym.
Why is the renovation necessary?
“Look at it,” said Patriot junior Chloe Trissel during a tour this week.
“Look at the floor," added senior volleyball player Abby Barcus. "Look at everything else. It’s pretty bad.”
The floor has a two-tone look that was not in the original design. Sections had to be cut out in order to fix a plumbing problem. They were filled in with concrete and painted in a different shade of blue from the rest of the floor.
The lockers, which are orange and blue, are original to the facility. Some of them are difficult to open. Some can’t be closed without a girl putting her full weight on them. Some have bottoms falling out.
While female athletes get full-sized lockers, physical education students are left with smaller ones — about the size of a couple of shoe boxes. So, backpacks either get left in regular school lockers or remain out in the open in the locker room. Some students bring trash bags in order to be able to utilize the small storage areas.
The showers are not inviting. Few girls use them, in part because of the "nasty" floors.
The configuration of the benches and lockers leaves little room to maneuver.
There’s no space to have a decent team meeting.
“For basketball some of us sit on that bench,” said sophomore Shelby Caldwell, pointing to the bench nearest the entrance to the locker room, “and then everybody else has to gather around on the floor.”
Barcus and Trissel said the volleyball team does the same.
If all goes well, that won’t be the case during the 2017-18 seasons.
Architects from Barton-Coe-Vilamaa, a firm that has worked with Jay Schools on previous projects, presented the school board preliminary drawings last month of what the remodeled facility could look like. They largely mirror the boys’ locker rooms, which were remodeled about a decade ago as part of a larger construction project.
Drawings show separate physical education, visitors’ and home locker rooms, all built with an open concept — full-sized lockers along the outside walls with built-in ledges to serve as benches. The home locker room would have a separate entrance directly from the gym. Public restrooms would also be remodeled as part of the project, leading to the addition of a family restroom in addition to the women’s and men’s.
The design incorporates suggestions from Barcus, Trissel and Caldwell, who have served as representatives for the school’s female athletes.
“We want it open, so there’s more room, less crowding. We want the PE locker room and the team locker room separate, like it is over there," said Trissel, referring to the boys locker room.
The impetus for the project came in August, when Barcus approached the school board. She had been talking with a couple of 2016 graduates this summer and the state of the locker rooms came up. She decided to try to do something about it, and in a brief statement in front of the board she asked if the locker room facilities for female athletes could be improved and requested a meeting with interim superintendent Brad DeRome to discuss the issue.
DeRome spoke to Barcus following the meeting and later toured the girls’ locker room with JCHS principal Chad Dodd and athletics director Steve Boozier. They couldn’t help but agree that something had to be done.
“There’s not a one of you who would say it’s not time to do," DeRome told the board at its next meeting. "I assure you of that."
The request came at the right time.
Jay School Corporation has been in the process of refinancing nearly $18 million worth of debt from 2006 bonds. That process, which is expected to drop the interest rate to about 2 percent from the current 4.1, will result in savings of about $1.8 million.
The board had agreed to spend about $1 million of that money on upgrades for schools and the rest to reduce debt. They had talked in general about using some of the funds for paving and roofing, but had not focused in on a specific project.
“They had really good timing when Abby came to us because we were in the midst of getting ready to talk about the bond refinancing, which we have to do projects primarily at this building and at the middle schools,” said DeRome, adding that while cost estimates have not yet been provided he expects it could be about a half million dollars. “And this would become a cornerstone project of the bond refinancing money we’re going to get.
“This was going to be a big-ticket item. It was just a confluence of events to come together. It just seemed like a natural fit.”
In addition to providing a nicer, cleaner, more functional area for female athletes and PE students, a restructured facility will also help with logistics. Currently, visiting girls’ teams are housed in the visiting boys’ locker room, which also has an entrance from the pool.
“We won’t have those issues,” said Boozier, “because there will be a girls’ side of the gym and a boys’ side of the gym.
“It’ll give us a lot more flexibility with a lot less concern for awkward situations.”
The expectation is that Barton-Coe-Villamaa will present a finalized plan to the school board in November and request permission to proceed. That would be followed by the bidding process over the winter with a goal of starting and completing construction during the summer of 2017.
So, less than a year after Barcus raised the issue, Jay County’s female students could have a remodeled locker room facility.
“It feels pretty good, because you don’t think that anything would happen just going up there and talking,” said Barcus.
“When somebody told me that you brought it and that they were actually going to redo it, I was like, ‘No, you’re kidding,’” agreed Caldwell.
Barcus won’t be around to enjoy the results of her request. She plans to graduate at mid-year and start classes at Wright State University during the 2017 spring semester. That will give her a jump-start on her volleyball career at the school in Dayton, Ohio.
“Abby, it’s so noble on her part, because she’s not going to benefit from this a bit,” said Boozier. “And I think a lot of time students may have in the past seen, ‘Well, this needs to be done, but it’s not going to benefit me, so who cares.’ And they move on.
“Abby going (to the school board meeting) and doing that for something she’s not going to benefit from, that’s amazing.”
Jay School Corporation has been in the process of refinancing nearly $18 million worth of debt from 2006 bonds. That process, which is expected to drop the interest rate to about 2 percent from the current 4.1, will result in savings of about $1.8 million.
The board had agreed to spend about $1 million of that money on upgrades for schools and the rest to reduce debt. They had talked in general about using some of the funds for paving and roofing, but had not focused in on a specific project.
“They had really good timing when Abby came to us because we were in the midst of getting ready to talk about the bond refinancing, which we have to do projects primarily at this building and at the middle schools,” said DeRome, adding that while cost estimates have not yet been provided he expects it could be about a half million dollars. “And this would become a cornerstone project of the bond refinancing money we’re going to get.
“This was going to be a big-ticket item. It was just a confluence of events to come together. It just seemed like a natural fit.”
In addition to providing a nicer, cleaner, more functional area for female athletes and PE students, a restructured facility will also help with logistics. Currently, visiting girls’ teams are housed in the visiting boys’ locker room, which also has an entrance from the pool.
“We won’t have those issues,” said Boozier, “because there will be a girls’ side of the gym and a boys’ side of the gym.
“It’ll give us a lot more flexibility with a lot less concern for awkward situations.”
The expectation is that Barton-Coe-Villamaa will present a finalized plan to the school board in November and request permission to proceed. That would be followed by the bidding process over the winter with a goal of starting and completing construction during the summer of 2017.
So, less than a year after Barcus raised the issue, Jay County’s female students could have a remodeled locker room facility.
“It feels pretty good, because you don’t think that anything would happen just going up there and talking,” said Barcus.
“When somebody told me that you brought it and that they were actually going to redo it, I was like, ‘No, you’re kidding,’” agreed Caldwell.
Barcus won’t be around to enjoy the results of her request. She plans to graduate at mid-year and start classes at Wright State University during the 2017 spring semester. That will give her a jump-start on her volleyball career at the school in Dayton, Ohio.
“Abby, it’s so noble on her part, because she’s not going to benefit from this a bit,” said Boozier. “And I think a lot of time students may have in the past seen, ‘Well, this needs to be done, but it’s not going to benefit me, so who cares.’ And they move on.
“Abby going (to the school board meeting) and doing that for something she’s not going to benefit from, that’s amazing.”
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