A rendering for a 5,800-square-foot Center Grove Wellness Center, which will serve Center Grove staff members and their families.
Images provided by Center Grove Schools
Center Grove school board members unanimously approved two new multi-million dollar buildings Tuesday: a wellness center for staff and an instructional hitting facility for student-athletes.
The 5,800-square-foot wellness center will come with medical exam rooms, a fitness center, mental health consultation rooms and a dedicated space for physical therapy, along with an outdoor walking path. The 9,600-square-foot instructional hitting facility will include an instructional hitting space and three hitting cages for softball, and three hitting bays to be shared by the golf teams, according to school documents.
The wellness center is planned across the street from Center Grove High School, while the instructional hitting facility will be east of Ray Skillman Stadium. Construction on the two buildings will begin in the summer and both buildings are expected to open in time for the 2023-24 school year, according to school officials.
Center Grove Community School Corporation will cover the construction of the two buildings with two bonds, each $6.1 million. The school district won’t need to raise property taxes for the project, and the two bonds will be paid off starting in 2025, as payment for previous projects is completed and comes off the books.
The bonds for the project will also cover other school needs, including school bus purchases, land acquisition, replacing turf on the varsity football field, relocation of the freshman football field, installation of a stoplight at Pennington Road and Morgantown Road near the wellness center, and demolition of the Center Grove Professional Resource Center. The center is being demolished because the Center Grove Police Department has moved to the Emergency Operations Center, and Bridges Academy and Center Grove Simon Youth Academy have moved to school buildings, according to school officials.
Members of the public were given time to speak during a public hearing before school board members voted.
Area resident Keith Poor said the school should have more of a focus on academics than athletics.
“I think it’s nice to play golf, it’s nice to play softball, I enjoy watching it on TV. But now, when it comes down to putting the money where you really need to put the money, let’s build an academic situation, such as a robotics place,” Poor said. “I just want to see the taxes that all of us pay getting a quality education for the students.”
While school board members rejected bids for a 1,200 square-foot robotics space in March because the bids exceeded the school district’s budget, school officials still plan to pursue the project, school board member Rob Daniels said.
Academics have been a focus of recent building renovations to add classrooms at multiple schools, including Center Grove High School, Middle School North and Middle School Central, board member Jack Russell said.
“The first thing we do as a board is we look at what is a well-rounded situation to have for the students that come through here,” he said. “We do our best to provide for all those different things.”
The hitting facility will provide an indoor practice space for teams that otherwise have to contend with inclement weather. It will also allow the golf teams to practice without the fees that come along with renting out a course, which are often paid by the student golfers’ families, said Matt Rodman, head coach for the boys’ varsity golf team.
The wellness center will also help Center Grove schools recruit and retain staff members, he said.
Last year, 50 Center Grove teachers resigned for reasons other than retirement.
“I guarantee you it’s something that will attract new teachers and new quality staff members so we don’t have that constant turnover we have at the moment,” Rodman said. “About the indoor training facility, I have been the boys’ golf coach for seven years. During that seven-year time, we have seen exponential growth in the number of athletes who are participating in our program at the middle school and high school level, and we have run out of space.”
Chris Herrmann, president of the Center Grove Lassie League, a non-profit youth softball league, said the hitting facility will help give a needed boost to girls’ sports.
“It’s about showing our young women, specifically in softball and girls’ golf, that the school, the corporation and the community care about women’s sports and are willing to put in the money, the time and the effort into supporting those types of things,” he said.
