ROGERS, Ark. — Construction crews are hard at work building the new competition gym at Rogers High School. It will be able to seat 2,300 people and host state tournaments.
"Our facilities are going to be a thing of beauty. I just appreciate the vision of our board of education, and our leader's leadership cabinet with providing our students with the very best," Keith Kilgore, Athletic Director for Rogers Public Schools, said.
Nearby Heritage High School's new addition will be a multipurpose gym.
"We passed a $60 million second-lien bond. We're at about $52-53 million on all projects, so that's under budget," Charles Lee, Assistant Superintendent of Rogers Public Schools, said.
New Rogers schools athletic facilities
The projects were initially slated to complete by November of this year, but challenges got it the way.
"You can turn dirt, but you can't turn mud, and we've had a couple of situations with our weather where we've had to deal with that. I don't think we are too far behind schedule," Lee said.
Work is also being done on new baseball and softball complexes at both schools.
When this construction project is complete, they will have dugouts, dressing rooms, and even an outfield wall.
"Bringing that facility on campus, we think about our student's safety; they have to travel across town," Kilgore said.
School officials hope the entire project is something students' staff, and the community can be proud of.
"That's one of the things we are trying to create is a better environment and get students more involved with it being right there on campus. The likelihood of them staying for an event supporting our teams," Kilgore said.
The project also includes multipurpose tracks at all four middle schools
Air conditioning for two middle school gyms that don't have that feature right now.
The hope is to have everything completed by January of next year.