FDSH project gets started

Ceremony marks beginning of multipurpose building

A flat patch of ground on the east side of Fort Dodge Senior High School will be covered by a new multipurpose building that will be one of the most visible signs of a major renovation of the 1958 vintage school.

Fort Dodge Community School District leaders, the senior high marching band and the Ambassadors of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance came together to give the multipurpose building project a formal start.

The new building and the entire high school project were made possible when school district voters approved the extension of the district's borrowing authority, enabling a bond issue of up to $42 million.

"They voted yes for the students," school board President Molly Nelson said Tuesday morning.

While Tuesday's event was specifically about the multipurpose building, it also served as a kind of formal start for the entire high school renovation effort, much of which will not be as visible as the new building will be .

"It excites me when we not only get to honor the history of this building, but bring it into the modern day,' said high school Principal Staci Laird. "It makes me proud that we have taken good care of our facilities and are continuing to take good care of them by doing these renovations. "

Laird said that by extending the borrowing authority, the voters chose to give students an “environment that better reflects our investment in them and in their future."

"Our community has a strong tradition of supporting its students," she said. “Giving the green light to this work is proof that that tradition is as strong as ever."

District Superintendent Josh Porter said the building is to be about 22,000 square feet in size, but added that on Thursday the district will open bids for the potential addition of a 4,000 square foot girls wrestling room.

"As a strong wrestling community it comes as no surprise that girls wrestling has taken off," he said.

Porter said the building will include these features:

An area for building theater sets

Four batting cages

A two-lane indoor track around the perimeter of the building

20 weightlifting racks

Cardio fitness equipment

He said construction will take 10 months to a year to complete.