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The school community gathered Thursday in the front of the main building, which was renamed Salisbury Hall in honor of the late Nancy Salisbury, RCSJ, head of school from 1970 to 1980 and trustee from 1989 to 1995 and from 2000 to 2003.
The new athletic facility is driven by the need from the school’s many sports teams and by an increased student population, said Michael Baber, assistant head of school and director of advancement.
“We have strong athletic programs, but we don’t always have the facilities to sustain and support them. We do a lot of driving the girls off campus for training, for fitness, for squash and for basketball because we have a large number of teams,” he said. “We are all vying for the same court space that was built in 1990 for 300 girls. Now it is 2014 and we have 740 girls for the same facility.”
The DuBois Gymnasium, which has been home to the school's indoor sports for 24 years, will be attached by an atrium to the new athletic facility, Baber said.
“We find more middle school girls are participating in sports both in school and out of school in numbers that are unprecedented,” he said. “We felt the call to make sure that our curriculum and facilities support all of that.”
The school has raised more than $15 million of the $25.5 million in 18 months, Baber said.
The athletic complex is expected to be open in September 2015. The new 35,600-square-foot complex will include two high school basketball courts, six international squash courts, a fitness room, a dance studio, a trainer’s suite, locker rooms and offices.
A new student dining room will be constructed that will expand the current dining area by more than 60 percent. Kelly Stone, the school's director of athletics, welcomes the new athletic center and said it will expand the school’s athletic options.
“Right now, the structure dictates the program. Once the last brick is laid, the program will define itself,” she said.
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