The Belmond-Klemme Community School District is preparing to give its gymnasium floors a fresh, updated look this summer as part of a scheduled maintenance project that will include sanding, staining, painting and sealing the surfaces.
Earlier this spring, the district invited community members to help choose the new design through a public survey. According to Activities Director James Severson, the feedback gathered will help guide the final decision.
“We did run a community survey for a new gym floor,” Severson said. “We will take those results back to our buildings and grounds committee to determine the actual results.”
The renovation process will involve completely refinishing each gym floor. Severson said the existing stain and painted markings will be removed before the new design is applied.
“Each floor will be sanded down, removing the current stain and paint marks,” he said. “The floor will then be stained, painted and sealed. The whole process takes three weeks to complete.”
Work is scheduled to begin on June 1 in the high school gym. Once that portion is complete, crews will move to the elementary gym. During portions of the project, the stage area will also undergo maintenance.
“The process will start on June 1 in the HS and finish three weeks later. They will then move to the elementary gym,” Severson said. “While there is some downtime between staining and painting, the company will be refinishing the stage as well.”
The gymnasium will be closed to all activities while work is underway, which influenced the decision to renovate one space at a time.
Severson said community involvement was an important part of the process after the committee narrowed down several design options.
“As a committee, we thought about many different designs and looked at a lot of different options to find the three that we thought were a good fit for our gym,” he said. “We took inspiration from many different sources, including other schools’ floors, college floors, etc. Once we had our final designs, it was important for us to have involvement from the community so we could get a large understanding of where the community stood and what they would like to see.”
At this time, no official unveiling is planned once the project is complete, though the idea is being considered.
“At this time, there is no plan to have a floor unveiling ceremony but I like the idea and will see if we can do something prior to the start of the school year,” Severson said.
Severson noted that the project has been under consideration for several years and will bring both functional improvements and a refreshed appearance to the district.
“This project has been on the back burner for a few years now,” he said. “The gym floor will bring a modern update to our school and community. Along with an update, it will bring branding to our gym floor, which currently has none.”