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COLONIE — The North Colonie School District’s Athletic Department is hoping the Board of Education will include $329,000 to make sweeping improvements to the training facilities at Shaker High School.
The need to renovate the space, said Athletic Director Matt Stein, ranges from not enough teaching spaces, to outdated equipment to more students getting into fitness.
“It’s really a testament to the kids. Too many kids who want to work out and use the facilities and have fitness as a part of their life is a good problem to have,” Stein said. “It’s that demand that drove us to put this proposal together.”
Much of the work, he said, would be done by the maintenance department and that in-kind labor is not included in the proposal. Rather, the money would be used to purchase materials and new exercise equipment that reflects changing fitness philosophies.
“The improvement would serve programming for physical education and athletics and right now what we have does not meet those needs as far as size goes and equipment,” Stein said.
The new fitness center, if the board opts to include it in the budget, will be 4,190 square feet compared to 1,900-square-foot now. The existing physical education conference room will grow to 1,050-square-foot from 490-square-foot and there will be new adaptive physical education rooms and new teaching stations as well as a new cardio room.
But, Stein said, the current space won’t be expanded just reconfigured.
“The classes we can have are very limited and we have kids working out in the hallway and in the lobbies,” he said. “It’s the number of kids using the facilities that are dictating this and we hope the board can help us make this happen.”
This project is outside of the capital project that will renovate all the elementary schools and bring sixth grade to the Shaker Junior High School.
The board and Superintendent Joseph Corr are working to finalize the 2018-19 budget which and a first draft will be finalized and released during a Board of Education committee meeting on April 9.