Nebraska SD Breaks Ground on New Gym, Commons

Osceola Public Schools in Nebraska held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $7.7 million new building that will be constructed between the elementary school and high school.

The 26,000-square-foot addition will include a daycare, a new kitchen facility with updated equipment, a commons area and a new gymnasium that will improve the elementary school’s PE program.

Plans for the school building began in 2015 and after the district incorporated community feedback into their plans, the bond was passed earlier this year.

The commons area will function both as a cafeteria and a space for various school activities and events and will be linked to the new gym which seats 1,000. The gym will greatly enhance the elementary PE program and provide a space for physical activity during inclement weather. The new addition will include four locker rooms, an athletic training room, coaches’ offices and a new parking lot.

As part of this construction project, the main entrance to the elementary school will be renovated to provide a secure access point for visitors during school hours. There will also be a new safer walkway for students and parents.

Construction will begin next month and is expected to take a year to complete. Wilkins ADP is the architect and BD Construction is serving as the construction manager.

About the Author

Yvonne Marquez is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Florida District Completes Construction on New Leadership Institute

    Pinellas County Schools near Tampa, Fla., recently announced that construction is complete on the new Dr. Michael A. Grego Leadership Institute, according to a news release. The district partnered with Rowe Architects for the project’s design and with Skanska for construction services.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • Moline-Coal Valley School District to Consolidate Two Schools into New Facility

    The Moline-Coal Valley School District in Moline, Ill., recently broke ground on a new elementary school that will consolidate the students and staff from two existing schools, according to local news. Robert Ontiveros Elementary School will serve as the new home for Lincoln-Irving Elementary School and Willard Elementary School.