Sports teams and physical educational classes from Olds College and Olds High School have to find new homes for roughly seven weeks as the entire floor of the Ralph Klein Centre gymnasium is replaced.
Sports teams and physical educational classes from Olds College and Olds High School have to find new homes for roughly seven weeks as the entire floor of the Ralph Klein Centre gymnasium is replaced.
The floor of the north gym at the centre, as well as an adjacent wrestling room, was damaged after a downspout on a cap behind a wall came off during an intense thunderstorm on June 29.
The water made its way under the wooden floor and caused the floorboards to buckle and warp.
The centre is part of the Community Learning Campus and is jointly owned by the college and Chinook’s Edge School Division.
Olds High School principal Tom Christensen said the water damage has expanded from the north gym to affect the entire gymnasium floor.
The flooring, including the under floor, will be torn up on Nov. 15 and he said the last half of November will be a "very, very complicated" two weeks as displaced sports teams from both schools share space at the college’s Frank Grisdale Hall Gymnasium.
"Between the college and high school we have 12 teams going at that time that will be needing a gym," Christensen said.
To accommodate the space-sharing situation, he added, high school teams will hold practices earlier, reduce the number of practices and double up on practices for some teams.
Dean Turnquist, a spokesman for the college, said the schools will also use gymnasium space at Ecole Deer Meadow School, Olds Koinonia Christian School and Didsbury High School.
Christensen said the crunch for space at the Frank Grisdale Hall Gymnasium will ease in December when college teams become inactive as the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference shuts down sports activities while college students write exams.
He added the schools have worked out a "conflict matrix" to ensure that if a team from either school has a playoff game in November, that team would have priority for the gymnasium space.
The "biggest challenge" for the high school, Christensen said, is finding space for its physical education classes, as on some days, there are as many as four such classes taking place at the school.
Students in physical education classes are "the ones who are suffering probably the most" he added, and they will have to make use of The Bowl bowling alley, the Olds Sports Complex and other local facilities while the RKC floor is replaced.
Two crews will work on the floor replacement and the gym is expected to reopen on Jan. 5.
Christensen said he was not aware of any school-related non-sports activities that will be disrupted during the floor replacement process and Turnquist said the CLC fitness centre will remain open during construction.
The replacement is expected to cost roughly $500,000, Christensen said, which will be covered by insurance.
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