photo by: Contributed

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Perry-Lecompton High School's athletic fields and new auxiliary gym was held Friday, September 20, 2024.

Several facility construction projects will begin in the Perry-Lecompton school district to support athletics and fine arts students along with parents looking for better day care options nearby.

Last fall, the Perry-Lecompton school district passed a $17.8 million bond issue for new and updated facilities. The funding will be distributed between two construction phases, with the first one costing roughly $14 million and the second totaling around $3.7 million.

The first phase – which is currently underway – will construct a new auxiliary gym, restrooms south of the gym and baseball/softball diamonds that will be located at Perry-Lecompton High School. Superintendent JoshWoodward said the gym will relieve high school students from having to travel to access gym facilities.

photo by: Contributed

A new auxiliary gym will be added to Perry-Lecompton High School.

“We’re going to alleviate the high school kids that have to drive in the wintertime, which kind of concerns you as an administrator when you think of kids (driving in that weather) or finding a bus driver to take them over there,” Woodward said.

Woodward said the baseball/softball fields will also be beautiful complexes with turf on the infield.

“The current ball diamonds don’t compare to the league we’re in,” Woodward said. “Everybody else in the league has wonderful complexes that they’ve built or redone in the last five to 10 years and ours was really a city (recreational) field that we’ve used for forever.”

“This is a chance to give our baseball and softball (players) a really nice field to play on,” Woodward said.

Additionally, as part of the first phase, there will be an additional seven classrooms along with restrooms and secured entrances added to Lecompton Elementary School. The new classrooms will create space for the kindergarten classes at Perry Elementary, which houses the early childhood center, to relocate to Lecompton, and will help expand day care options to parents in the school district.

“We opened up a day care at our elementary for parents with 18 month to five year old (kids) because we had done a survey in the community and found out that there was a very limited amount of private daycares in the entire Perry-Lecompton district,” Woodward said.

“It’s a big district,” Woodward said. “The square mileage is much bigger than Lawrence, but we just don’t have as many folks living in it … We had parents driving their kids to Topeka and Lawrence for child care before work, which is tough.”

photo by: Contributed

A baseball diamond and a softball diamond will be added to Perry-Lecompton High School.

Woodward said that with the extra space at Perry Elementary, and if the district can secure the necessary staffing for the expansion, the number of students in the day care could be doubled to accommodate around 80 kids.

The second phase of construction projects, which will begin in the late spring, will add safe and secure entrances to the remaining school buildings in the district – Perry-Lecompton High School, Perry-Lecompton Middle School and Perry Elementary School. The Little Theater, or the fine arts auditorium, at Perry-Lecompton High School will also be remodeled.

Woodward said the stage will be expanded, providing more space for the band and students performing the musicals. The district is also exploring the addition of retractable walls, as the auditorium serves as a cafeteria during the day. These walls will remain open during lunch, but can be closed for events like concerts or musicals, enhancing the auditorium experience.

There has been a desire in the community for there to be improvements to the auditorium to support students in the fine arts department, Woodward said. In addition to those improvements, he also said the district will look into upgrading the lighting and sound systems in the auditorium.

“We want those kids to have a really good sound system in, so that when they’re up there in the musical, we can clearly understand what they’re saying and what they’re singing,” Woodward said. “Right now, at times, it can be difficult because of the echo.”

photo by: Contributed

There will be seven additional classrooms added to Lecompton Elementary School.

With construction currently happening at Lecompton Elementary, Woodward said there are minimal disruptions to classrooms since the project is an addition to the south side of the building.

“The construction management companies have their own secure road to bring in trucks from the south so they don’t interfere with drop off, pickup or bussing, which is happening on the west,” Woodward said. “Now, it gets a little more congested there because they kind of took out part of our parent dropoff lane.”

“But our parents have been wonderful working with our elementary staff and adjusting to the pickup and drop off changes that occurred because of the construction,” Woodward said.

For the remaining projects, Woodward stated that the district plans to focus on upgrading the safe and secure entrance at Lecompton Elementary during a break when students are out of school, expecting the same for the other four buildings. He said that the construction of the baseball and softball diamonds will not disrupt school operations. Additionally, the district aims to begin some soft demolition work on the auditorium before the end of the school year to get a head start, ensuring that it won’t be too noisy to disturb classes.

photo by: Contributed

A proposed construction timeline for the new facility projects at the Perry-Lecompton school district.

Woodward said he thinks parents and other community members will be pleased with the outcome of the projects.

“We couldn’t have done this without a supportive community,” Woodward said. “It speaks volumes about the community that they want to do these special things for our kids, and the community will benefit too.”