A ribbon cutting for the grand opening of Georgetown Jr./Sr. High School’s new weight room was held Oct. 10. Photo by Wade Linville
The recently completed weight room at Georgetown Jr./Sr. High School is packed with new equipment. Photo by Wade Linville
For a number of years, Georgetown Jr./Sr. High School’s student/athletes worked out in a weight room that held a maximum of about five people, and that was a tight fit. But that’s no longer the case. On the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 10, Georgetown Jr./Sr. High School held the ribbon cutting for its newly constructed weight room that’s packed with new equipment for the health and wellness of students.
“This will allow whole teams to come in here (and work out),” Georgetown Superintendent Brad Winterod said of the new weight room.
To fund the construction of the new weight room and equipment, the Georgetown Exempted Village School District used Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds that were issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was money we got from the state after COVID, and you can only use ESSER money for certain things and you had to be approved by the state if you could use it,” Winterod explained. “So, I asked Mr. (Eric) Toole, our treasurer; I said, ‘Hey, do you think we can use it for health and wellness and do a new weight room?,’ and they said ‘yes.’”
“So, we started using this money to make this happen. There were a couple of set backs. Three years later we are finally finished,” said Winterod.
Winterod thanked Eric Toole for his financial work involved with the construction of the new weight room, members of the GEVS Board of Education, Georgetown High School Athletic Director Krista Cahall, GHS Principal Taylor Cox, facility workers, and others who were involved in the completion of the weight room.
“This is for you,” Winterod said to Georgetown students during the Oct. 10 ribbon cutting ceremony. “I’m excited! I hope your teams use it.”
Also speaking during the Oct. 10 ribbon cutting was GEVS Board of Education President Dr. Raymond Virost.
“It was dangerous in there,” Dr. Virost said of the school’s old weight room.
Dr. Virost expressed his appreciation to Winterod and Toole for their work in getting the weight room completed, and to Prodigy Building Solutions for the renovation of the room where the new weight room is located.
“It’s been quite a renovation,” said Virost.