GILBERTVILLE, Iowa --- Students will eat lunch in a new cafeteria starting next week at Immaculate Conception School.
The food will be prepared in the adjoining kitchen, which is debuting at the same time. Those are the final components of a $2.5 million, 19,000-square-foot addition to the grades three-through-eight school at 311 16th Ave. Students have already been using the gym which is part of the addition for about three weeks.
The addition is the largest component in a $3.3 million building campaign that also includes renovations at Don Bosco High School across the parking lot. Bosco System Catholic Schools has collected a little more than $2 million in donations and, including pledges, a total of $3.25 million.
"Our overall goal was $3.3 million and we're almost there," said Jeff Keen, director of development and marketing for the school system. "This is all private donations. A lot of families have pitched in what they can."
The gym is being used for physical education classes in grades three through eight, middle school sports and some high school practices when Don Bosco's gym is in use. The space is already finding other uses, as well.
"In the short time it's been open, we've been able to have assemblies, guest speakers and prayer services," said Immaculate Conception/St. Joseph Principal Julie Niemeyer. "I think that's going to open up a lot more possibilities for our students."
The addition is south of the school and next to Immaculate Conception Church where an old convent once stood. It was razed shortly before ground was broken on the project last May. Huff Contracting of Waterloo is the general contractor for the project.
With final inspection of the cafeteria/kitchen this week, the addition was done just ahead of its March 1 projected completion date. High school renovations also are ahead of schedule. Already well under way, they originally were expected to begin after the grade school addition was complete.
The addition replaces St. Mary's Hall, built in 1919. As part of the renovations, that building will be demolished to make way for parking. Sixth-graders in physical education class at the new full-size gym said it was a big improvement from the smaller St. Mary's space.
"There's a lot more room," gym teacher Tracie Hovden said. "We can have a lot more kids active at one time." At St. Mary's she noted that plaster was falling from a leaky ceiling and the heating system and lighting were poor.
"They had to change in the bathroom before and walk over in their P.E. clothes," said Hovden.
The addition also includes locker rooms, rest rooms and a concession area. Immaculate Conception's boilers were also replaced with two new energy efficient models.
At the high school, most of the windows have been replaced and the surrounding insulation upgraded. The entire first floor of the school was carpeted, the drop ceiling replaced, and hallway and gym lighting upgraded. Two sound-proof practice rooms have been built in the band room.
The former wrestling room was converted to a fitness center, tripling its size, and the old weight room became physical education storage. The new wrestling room is a 6,000-square-foot addition on the northeast side of the high school.
Among the work that still needs to be completed, rest rooms will be updated and laptop computers and composing software purchased for the band room.
So far, $300,000 has been spent at Don Bosco --- which includes much donated labor. "We're actually on budget or under budget, and it's because the community showed up and built this stuff," said Keen.
"There's people that we know that stopped their work to help us," Don Bosco Principal Eric Eckerman said.
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