Each year, students and staff in the music and athletic departments work hard and strive for excellence. Due to the growth of these programs, there is a need for expansion projects for their facilities.

“We need more space,” principal Tracy Wilson said. “We have more art students involved in band, orchestra and choir than were involved when the building was originally built. We have a weight room facility that’s inadequate for the size of our phys ed and athletic programs.”

The plans for the music wing include adding new outside walls to have a larger band room, and adding space so that the orchestra will have their own room, as opposed to the current situation where the band and orchestra share a room.

Individual lockers will also be built, allowing students to safely store their instruments and reduce damage and theft.

For the athletic department, outside walls are also being built to encompass a new weight room in front of the current auxiliary gym. The current weight room will then be turned into a multi-purpose athletic room that could be used for activities like wrestling.

Due to the expansion in the music wing, the TV room will be moved to the north corner next to the new weight room. A hallway will connect these rooms to the existing building.

Right now, fencing surrounds the site in front of the school as construction progresses. These fences are likely to come down when construction is finished in August 2015.

The current goal is to dig up and move sewage drains and water sources farther away from where the new rooms will be built, and to have it done before winter and before the ground freezes.

Since the new rooms are add ons, workers can work on them all year without disturbing staff and students. Then, when school is out for the summer, the old rooms can be demolished and reconfigured when they aren’t being used.

Wilson explained that the expansion package was proposed on the bond issue passed in May, in order to meet the needs students.

“When the building was first built, it’s not like there was a mistake made,” Wilson said. “We didn’t have a developed orchestra program like we do today. So because of that, there’s not an extra classroom.”

Orchestra teacher Melissa Meyers is looking forward to the new additions that will accommodate for the growing size of the orchestra.

“It’s going to alleviate a lot of the congestion that we feel all the time down here,” Meyers said. “It’s only going to help us. It’s going to help us be more functional.”

Junior Emma Sachteleben shares Meyers’ excitement for the additions, and believes the new orchestra space will help them improve and limit distractions.

“I feel like it will be easier to focus because a lot of times we have band kids coming in to get their instruments,” Sachteleben said. “The orchestras are getting bigger every year, so more space is going to come in really handy.”