Does San Benito High School need a new weight room and wrestling
gym to replace the cramped facilities on campus now? The simple
answer is yes.
The question of whether this is the right time, however, is more
complex and obliges district officials to consider not only the
school’s overall financial stability, but also what kind of message
it would send when state funding remains shaky and other capital
projects are getting delayed indefinitely.
The crucial question is timeliness
Does San Benito High School need a new weight room and wrestling gym to replace the cramped facilities on campus now? The simple answer is yes.
The question of whether this is the right time, however, is more complex and obliges district officials to consider not only the school’s overall financial stability, but also what kind of message it would send when state funding remains shaky and other capital projects are getting delayed indefinitely.
There’s no doubt that San Benito High School’s wrestling and weight room facilities are worn down, outdated and entirely too small. A photo on the front page of the Free Lance in November shows the problem without any further explanation needed. Rows and rows of high school wrestlers are seen stretching for practice, with little, if any, room to spare.
Upgrade comes at a steep cost – $3.5M
But the upgrade comes at a hard price to swallow in the current fiscal environment – $3.5 million – and leaves us what other project or projects, perhaps more pressing than new wrestling and weight-lifting facilities, the district could undertake for that dollar amount.
Of the proposed projects apparently lower in priority than a new weight room and wrestling gym, installment of the proposed $1.8 million one-wire system fits that category at a much lower cost to district taxpayers. It includes a public address system the school currently does not maintain.
Although there are possible safety issues with having outdated weight-training equipment and practicing in a crowded wrestling gym, the potential for disaster without a campus-wide intercom system – or a lacking ability to avert a crisis – is a more serious and urgent problem to fix. It’s astonishing the district has come this far without this standard resource.
Put halt to large, capital expenses
Still, we suggest the district should, until the state of school funding improves or at least becomes more transparent, put a moratorium on all large-scale expenses.
Safety aside, if the district is forced to move ahead with cuts in the coming year, progressing on the weight and wrestling facilities at that cost ultimately would send the wrong message about educational priorities to district staff, students and taxpayers.
