The career and technical education wing at Lisbon Schools is on track to be completed by late October.
School board member John Baker said that the contractors have switched to a weekly meeting to update on how the progress is going.
Roofing on the CTE building will be finished in the next week.
Weights were moved to the new weight room in the first week of school, and work is now finishing up in the lobby outside the Lion’s Den.
The work on the old gymnasium floor is the next process, with contractors patching where weights had damaged the older floor before installing a new rubber type floor in that gymnasium.
The old gymnasium will also serve as a storage space for the new classrooms that are being finished in the CTE wing.
Board member Allan Mallie said that while the new concession stand has been operating for Lisbon volleyball games, the overhead doors to close the concession stand are on order and should be in the next week.
Work on the exterior of the new weight room’s visual pops, including the red panels have been installed to be seen from Business 30.
“It’s fun to be here and see the progress that is being made,” said superintendent Autumn Pino.
Lisbon’s new weight room benefits more than student athletes.
Lisbon’s new weight room has already seen increased usage for classes, reported middle school activities director Brandon Horman.
Horman said the speed and conditioning class offered by the district has grown from 79 students last year to 122 students this year. That class utilizes the weight room space.
As well, the junior high school is now spending two to three days in the weight room space to be trained on how to properly utilize the weight room space.
“It’s awesome to see kids walk in that space and know it’s going to be used,” Horman said. Any given day, that amounts to 200 students using the space. Horman said that more than 60 percent of secondary students use the weight room on a daily basis.
There was also an increase in usage in the weight room in junior high and high school athletes over the summer. Horman noted that was due to many of the coaches hosting individual times in the gymnasium and reminding athletes the importance of strength and conditioning.
The one area that was value engineered out of the weight room project was new weights and equipment, due to the cost. He’s worried that the older equipment will damage the floor that the district spent more on.
Horman said it may be time to consider a fundraiser to look at investing in updating the equipment. Horman said that type of fundraiser would require a significant amount of funding.
Board member John Prasil again recommended that students going out in the community to fundraise this fall could raise quite a bit of funding for needs.
“There’s enough community members who will remember those fundraisers conducted in the past, that have done it themselves in our community,” Prasil said.