Murphy – After considering the potential uses, the Cherokee County Board of Education approved a revised design plan that includes a spectator gym for its Schools of Innovation project – the new Tri-County Early College High School, The Oaks Academy alternative school, and a career and technical education campus.
The school board made these decisions during a meeting on Jan. 22, which was a continuation of their meeting from Jan. 16.
The spectator gym was placed north of the three wings on the campus so it will be centered between the Schools of Innovation and space for the potential new two-story high school. It will have seating for 1,500 people, which can be folded in to provide two practice court spaces. It also has both physical education and varsity locker rooms, a stage, weight room and storage space.
The new design was created to factor in shared facilities with a potential new high school. The design presented nearly a week earlier only considered the needs of the Schools of Innovation project. It had a smaller auxiliary gym on the Early College wing, with the option of having the larger spectator gym there instead.
Board members saw the spectator gym as a benefit to the community and students throughout the county as space for graduations, concerts and other events.
Although he understood the benefits to students across the county, school board member Jeff Martin was wary of spending the extra funds – an estimated $3.1 million – for the spectator gym without a commitment for the future of the northernmost part of the property.
“We need to address that,” he said.
Chairman Jeff Tatham agreed it could be “overkill” to have the larger gym if they do not place a high school on the property in the future. However, seeing it as a space for all the schools helped.
“I see community value in it,” Tatham said.
Superintendent Jeana Conley told board members she could see the gym being used for recreation teams, too. The other board members present also saw the value in building the larger gym at this point.
“If we have something too little, it means we’ll have to turn around and build something bigger,” board member Keesha Curtis said.
Architects from PFA Architects Architectural Design Studio explained that board members will have two other chances to change their minds on aspects of the design – and the state is fine with working with changes to a point – but they need a schematic design to submit to the state and move on to the next step, which is design development.
The plan for the project still has three wings joined by a corridor, but the arrangement of the schools within the wings changed due to integrating shared spaces with the potential high school. The Oaks Academy and cafeteria were moved to the northern side of the campus, just south of the spectator gym. The Early College is now the center wing. Career and technical education, as well as Early College administration and the arena/commons space, are in the southernmost wing.
Each wing has room for expansion, and the cafeteria also has space to grow if needed for the potential high school. The auxiliary gym was also included as part of the expansion design, to be placed beside the spectator gym.