CHARLOTTESVILLE — Eastern Hancock is set to move ahead with plans for new locker room facilities at the high school that will give its sports teams much-needed breathing room.
The corporation plans to spend approximately $3.38 million on the project, which will be paid for by a bond issue. Work will be done by Gilliatte General Contractors and is expected to begin in May.
Adam Kinder, director of business and operations for the district, said the project was identified as a need in a consultant’s study a few years ago. The addition will make it easier for Eastern Hancock to accommodate more athletes.
“Right now, there’s not enough space to accommodate visiting teams,” he said.
The school corporation currently has two sets of locker rooms, one for athletics and one for physical education classes. The corporation will be adding two sets of new athletic locker rooms that can accommodate both home and visiting teams, and renovating the previous athletic locker rooms for use by physical education classes.
The project will also displace the school’s weight room, so a new one will be constructed as an add-on to the southeast corner of the high school building.
Athletic director Aaron Spaulding said Eastern Hancock has long been “in dire need” of more locker room space. During busy sports seasons, he said, it’s difficult for multiple teams across different sports to share space in the same locker room.
“There’s a lot of times when we have a visiting team, I will have to displace one of our teams,” he said, with one team having to clear out of practice early because another has a game and their opponents need a place to change.
The new locker rooms will also make it easier for teachers to supervise students during physical education classes, Spaulding said; students will have enough space to change in one set of locker rooms, whereas before, some would frequently have to use the athletic locker rooms.
Kinder said the proceeds of the corporation’s bond sale, which totaled about $3.48 million, should fully cover the locker room project, without the need to spend any local or state tax funds for it. Proceeds from the bond are specifically for building renovations and cannot be used for employee salaries or benefits.
The first phase of the project, which will convert the current athletic locker rooms into P.E. locker rooms, is expected to be complete in August of this year. That will be followed by the construction of the new weight room, expected to complete in October.
Construction of an upper floor of new locker rooms will begin once the new physical education space is complete and is scheduled to complete in January 2022. The second, lower floor of new locker rooms is scheduled to be complete by March 2022.