Columbus Municipal School District trustees are weighing cost, capacity and potential community use as the board considers five different plans for building an external gymnasium at Stokes-Beard Elementary.

During a special-call meeting Thursday, Jose Arellano, principal architect with PryorMorrow, presented the board with four different plans for the building, which will double, at least in part, as a storm shelter.

Trustees spent part of the discussion Thursday focused on whether the building could serve both students and residents in the surrounding neighborhood during an emergency.

“The reality of it is, if there’s a bad storm coming, there’s a potential that we’re not going to send our kids to the school, that still gives you the option of opening that building to the community if you don’t have kids,” Arellano told the board.

The gymnasium is one of several projects funded by the district’s $36 million bond voters approved in May 2024. While original estimates placed construction costs at $2.8 million, the price quickly ballooned to $6.4 million earlier this month with the addition of full storm shelter requirements for the building.

Current plans for the building include the gymnasium, which will house four basketball goals, two bathrooms, storage and office space, as well as two classrooms dedicated to music and art classes.

The options presented during Thursday’s meeting, Arellano said, range from $3.8 million to $7.1 million depending on how much of the structure is built to meet storm shelter code.

The most expensive options, estimated at about $7.1 million including contingencies, would entail constructing the entire building to storm shelter specifications. That would also allow for the highest capacity use for the shelter at about 1,337 occupants.

Two options presented Thursday would entail building one of the classrooms to storm shelter specifications while leaving the remainder of the gym constructed with conventional materials. One option would cost approximately $3.8 million and provide shelter capacity for 171 people, while the second, with a slightly larger classroom, would cost about $4.2 million and increase capacity to 200 people.

The final option Arellano presented would entail building only the gym section of the building to shelter specifications. With that plan, the shelter could house 995 people in the case of an emergency. That build would run the district about $6.1 million.

During the meeting, Trustee Dennis Dupree questioned whether it would be feasible – and potentially a good middle-ground option – to build both classrooms to storm shelter specifications.

“If you were to make both classroom storm shelters, there would be no need to reduce the gym, make the gym any smaller or make the classrooms any bigger because you would meet the requirements of that building in those two classrooms,” Arellano said in response. “(It could be) the best of both worlds there.”

The board concluded the meeting Thursday with no action, but Board President Robert Smith told The Dispatch he hopes trustees can come to a decision by the board’s March 9 meeting. As for now, he’s leaning toward the plan that would allow for 995 occupants with the gym serving as a shelter.

With that plan, Smith said the district could meet the needs of students during the school day and in severe weather while possibly still having space for nearby residents.

“Just say if the students are at school, and a tornado, hurricane, whatever just hit all of a sudden, the immediate people that’s going to come there are going to be the people over in the Propst Park area,” he said. “… (It would be) first come first serve, but if something like that happens, those people (would be) the first people to get there. … First come, first serve with the 995, I think that’ll be a good number.”

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.