Maine West plans $9.3 million gym addition

Article updated: 6/27/2014 9:35 AM

Maine Township High School District 207 officials are planning to build a $9.3 million addition to the existing spectator gym at Maine West High School in Des Plaines.

George LeClaire | Staff Photographer

Maine Township High School District 207 is planning to build a $9.3 million, 23,000-square-foot addition to the existing gym at Maine West in Des Plaines that would include locker rooms, a weight room and wrestling room.

It would bring those athletic amenities out of the basement of Maine West's spectator gym. But it stops short of something many around Maine West have long sought, and something Maine East and Maine South already have: a field house.

Such a project would take up a larger footprint to make room for an indoor track, which is staying put for now in Maine West's basement. The biggest obstacle to making it a reality, district officials say, has been finding the money to pay for it.

"It's a thought," said Dave Beery, the district's spokesman. "The proposal here is to construct an expansion in such a way that if a (school) board at some future date wanted to add a field house, it could do so. It would work with this expansion. But the district does not have the financial resources to do a field house at this point."

At a meeting of the board's buildings and grounds committee in May, Maine West Athletic Director Jarett Kirshner asked committee members to consider the addition of a field house. Board member Sean Sullivan "expressed flexibility in having a field house" since all district facilities should be "comparable and equitable," according to meeting minutes.

A smaller-scale gym addition, as proposed, could be funded without borrowing or raising taxes through the district's budgeted 10-year capital improvement plan. In its second year, the plan has focused on upgrades to each of the district's schools, including window replacements, roof repairs and improvements to electrical, mechanical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems.

The Maine West gym addition would be one of the largest and most expensive projects in the 10-year plan -- and the only one involving new construction, Beery said.

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Maine West plans $9.3 million gym addition