School board president Dan Willis bounced up and down with the excitement of a child as he showed off the gymnasium at Iola Elementary School.
“This is probably the biggest elementary gymnasium in Kansas,” he boasted.
The building is still under construction, but much of the work on the gym has been completed.
The room features a regulation size basketball court that can be used to host tournaments. A curtain can divide it in half, creating two basketball courts.
Seating on the north and south side of the main court will each have room for about 225 people for a total of 450.
Decades ago, previous school construction projects at the middle and high school planned for larger gymnasiums, but those projects were trimmed to save costs.
The opposite happened with the planning of the new elementary school.
The board was all set to approve plans with a smaller gym, but made a last minute change to expand it.
“I give board member Jen Taylor credit on this,” Willis said. “She’s the one who said ‘That gym’s not big enough.’ So we made it bigger. It added about $1.4 million to the budget, but it’s worth it.”
He grinned, turning in a circle and motioning to various features of the room.
“Just look at it.”
WILLIS estimates he’s visited the construction site “at least 100 times.” He stops by at least once a week to check on progress, and has done so since construction began about a year ago.
He’s watched each step as the building slowly takes shape.
“It gets better as we go,” he explained as he took the Register on a tour of the construction site last week.
“Once we get a football field away, you’ll really start to see how far along it is.”
Yes, he clarified, the entire length of the school is about equal to a football field.
The tour almost always takes an hour, he warned. It did.
Along the way, Willis pointed out some of the details that will make the building a showpiece for Iola.
Little things. Special features.
Like the lactation room next to the teacher’s lounge.
This year, the district had a handful of teachers who were pregnant. Not long ago, Willis pointed out, a pregnant teacher would have had to quit working. Now, the district has designed its elementary school in a way that supports working women.
Farther down, Willis stopped inside a special education classroom.
“We’re teaching life skills here,” he said.
He pointed to what will be a ventilation hood for a stove. The room will feature a small kitchen.
“We’ll be teaching kids how to cook. How to do dishes,” he said.
“We envision this school will become a hub for special education. Our building was designed with special education in mind.”
The special education rooms will be located in one of two storm shelters inside the building. It has three classrooms with dedicated restrooms and changing rooms, along with storage and special rooms where students and teachers can take “time out” to focus on social and emotional needs.
Several “conference rooms” with glass doors are found in various spots along the main hallway. They will give teachers a place to pull students aside to work on various skills, or simply to have a private chat.
