At the beginning of every PE class, students sit down in a huge grid spanning all the long wooden slats of the Lucco-Jackson gym floor. In their gray uniforms, they stretch, do assigned warm-ups and chat. They’re far enough away from one other to comfortably pull off some jumping jacks, and there’s plenty of room for coaches to weave through the rows with attendance clipboards.
But a leaking sewer main under Lucco-Jackson’s floor prompted the district to shut down the gym for major construction from March 17 through the summer. PE classes are restructuring their routines to avoid the main gym.
Monday morning, the first day without Lucco-Jackson, freshman Peyton Delgado found herself on the stairs to the gym balcony instead of her assigned warm-up spot on the gym floor. That was the day coach Michael Sabatino’s second period class was given their new meeting area. While the gym is closed, Delgado’s class will exercise in the B gym and meet on the stairs. That means no warm up, according to Delgado.
“There is a lack of space, so it’s hard to really do anything with four classes in one gym,” Delgado said. “On nice days, we will be walking the track.”
Coach Tim Funkhouser’s mantra during the closure is “the cost of progress is inconvenience.” He’s looking forward to updated facilities, but, in the meantime, he’s had to reorganize PE curriculums and squeeze multiple classes into the B gym every hour.
“We’ve explained to the students that there’s going to be an adjustment to kind of prepare them mentally,” coach Funkhouser said. “[We’ve] also let them know we might be outside more often than we normally are, and that’s something they need to prepare for.”
PE units have been stalled since Monday as coaches await the opening of the indoor track and C gym, which coach Funkhouser said is imminent. Moving outdoors more often is also a helpful fix.
“If we normally go outside when it’s maybe over 50 or 60 [degrees] at this time of year, we might go outside when it’s 45 degrees,” coach Funkhouser said.
Coach Funkhouser brought his Adaptive PE students outside in 60-degree weather on Monday. Students in adaptive classes generally exercise in the B gym, so the Lucco-Jackson closure means many visitors to their space.
According to sophomore Campbell Huffman, a peer buddy in Adaptive PE, this can be overwhelming for the students when the B gym is loud or crowded. It limits their activities.
“We used to play badminton in the C gym, but that’s off-limits now,” Huffman said. “We also used to play volleyball in the B gym, but now we just kind of bump the ball around in a circle. And we can’t get out the scooters anymore because there are too many people.”
But Huffman said it provides an opportunity for students in Adaptive PE to mingle with other classes as they exercise. They all bumped volleyballs together on Thursday, for example.
Lack of space presents concerns for several PE students, regardless of the kind of class they take.
“Some PE classes are huge,” freshman Darby Christian said. “Multiple classes being so close together can make some activities, like volleyball or basketball, hard to do.”
Freshman Olivia Royer, in coach Funkhouser’s first hour class, said packing the B gym “could also increase the risk of students getting hurt.”
But coach Funkhouser said gyms are needed for myriad school events all the time, so the PE department is used to adapting. With the weight room and outdoor track available and indoor track and C gym set to open soon, he said crowding in the B gym will likely decrease as classes can spread out and settle into life without Lucco-Jackson.
“We want to make sure we put our kids in a safe environment as well as keep them as active as possible, so that’s what we’re doing,” coach Funkhouser said.