Pictured above is the inside of the gymnasium on the south end of the Marysville Early College High School. Despite high demand for gym space in the area, school officials have no plans to clear out the gym, which is currently used for storage. Officials say the space will be used for a new auto technology course of study at the school in the next few years.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Kevin Behrens)
––––
Finding gymnasium space anywhere in the Marysville School District can be a challenge for non-school affiliated teams.
Though the Marysville High School has several gyms and every other school building in the district has at least one, renting such space can be a scheduling nightmare. There is, however, one gym in the district which has not been used for a single game or practice this year, but don’t expect that fact to change anytime soon.
The Marysville Early College High School (ECHS) has a gym, which is currently only being used for storage. School-affiliated teams have first right to use district gym space. Once they schedule all of their practices, area youth, and even adult, teams can rent space from the school district for $25-$50 per hour.
With the explosion of traveling basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, soccer and lacrosse teams as well as a very large youth wrestling program in the area, gym space is at a premium.
The ECHS has two gyms. The older gym is more centered in the building and is currently used as gymnastics training space through an agreement between the district and the Union County YMCA. The second gym, added as part of an expansion, sits on the south side of the building near the current robotics labs.
When Marysville shuttered the building, no longer using it for a high or middle school, the gym space continued to be used to meet the needs of the middle school wrestling program.
But when the school was renovated and reopened as the ECHS three years ago, the southern gym was used for storage of various old desks, tables, file cabinets and other fixtures.
According to superintendent Diane Mankins there would be a few hurdles that would need to be cleared before the room could be used.
First, the existing items would need to be removed she said. The district is trying to allocate some items to other school districts, but nothing will be thrown out.
Mankins explained that when the building was renovated a few years ago, some broken, aged microscopes were thrown out, drawing complaints from residents who looked in the dumpster and accused the schools of discarding items which still had value. Mankins said the district knows residents pay attention to what is discarded, so the district is focused on getting use from materials.
“We are cognizant of what we do with taxpayer dollars,” Mankins said.
Other problems involve some cracks and structural issues with walls and the fact that the gym is not air conditioned.
But the availability of the space may be a moot point in the near future.
Mankins said the district is in the early phases of creating an auto technology course to align with the advanced manufacturing pathway offered at the ECHS. The course would seek to train student to work with the technology needed as self-driving cars development surges.
Union County is scheduled to have millions of dollars of fiberoptic cables installed along U.S. 33, and other roadways, as the area becomes a testing ground for the national autonomous vehicle surge.
Mankins said businesses will need workers prepared to work in the smart mobility sector, and the ECHS is in a position to give students a foundation in that arena.
She said the southern gym would be the ideal spot to create lab space for such a program.
The superintendent estimated that an auto technology course of study could be operating in the ECHS as early as the 2018-19 school year.