MARSHALL — It’s been a year of changes for the former swimming pool facility at Marshall Middle School.
While not all the renovations are complete, a major part of the project — filling in the old pool — is finished.
“It’s falling into place nicely,” said Dion Caron, business services director at Marshall Public Schools.
The end goal for the old pool area will be to convert it into a home for both Marshall Public Schools and Marshall Community Services’ gymnastics programs, Caron said.
“We feel like it’s going to grow the program,” he said.
Last year, MPS started work to fill in the old pool and put a new concrete floor, new lighting and a new HVAC system in the room. New wall surfaces have been put in over the old tile on the walls. The pool facility already got a new roof a couple of years ago.
New paint and windows are planned to be installed this spring.
Caron said the large windows in the pool area are in their original frames from the 1960s, and are single-pane. They’ll be replaced with updated and better insulated windows.
Turning the former pool into a gymnastics facility will be a much better fit for holding competitions, Caron said. The district’s gymnastics equipment is currently in a smaller space at Marshall High School.
“Every time we have a meet, we need to move it” into the MHS gymnasium, Caron said. At the middle school location, that extra work won’t be necessary.
Caron said the pool renovation has an estimated cost of roughly $750,000.
“A majority of that is for the HVAC system being added to the pool area, which is being funded through a general obligation facility maintenance bond,” Caron said.
The bond covers indoor air quality projects at both MMS and Park Side Elementary.
The roofing portion of the pool renovations would be a larger portion of the total cost, Caron said. The roof portion of the project was funding through a four-year facility maintenance bond, which also funded re-roofing projects at MMS and Park Side.
“There was no tax impact to residential or commercial property and ag land owners actually saw a small decrease as it relates to this bond,” Caron said.
Other parts of the pool renovation costs, like filling in the pool, installing drywall and updating the windows, will be covered by long-term facilities maintenance funds, Caron said.
The swimming pool, which was original to the school building, hadn’t been used for around 17 years. As enrollment grew at MPS in recent years, the school district put forward ideas to renovate the space for other purposes. A proposal to turn the old pool area into a multipurpose room was part of a failed 2017 building referendum.
Caron said there’s still a need for space at MMS, but with the completion of building additions at Park Side, it’s not necessarily classroom space that’s in short supply. When the Early Childhood department moved to Park Side, it freed up a few existing rooms at the middle school.
“Where we’re running out of space is physical education and recess,” Caron said. The renovated pool area could be used during the day for PE classes or possibly indoor recess, he said.
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