Parents: Thousands of Dollars Wasted in Slow Gym Building Process

New plans for a gymnasium at Nichols Hills Elementary in northwest Oklahoma City are being finalized.  They should be presented at community meeting Thursday, February 21.  Construction of a gym on the west side of the school had to be halted last summer, after complaints about it locations from homeowners.

For the Nichols Hills Parent Teacher Association, the gym has been nearly a decade in the making.  The PTA raised about $750,000 privately to build a gym back in 2004, Jeff Lee, who co-chairs the PTA's gym committee, said.  Private plans stopped in 2007, when a bond issue passed in Oklahoma City Publics Schools that would build new gyms at most OKCPS elementary schools.

Lee said he is frustrated with the slow process and wasted money going into the construction.

When construction started last year homeowners on Glenwood Dr., threatened to sue OKCPS over the location.  They said they were under the impression the gym would be built on the opposite side of the school.  They said they were never notified about the plans for construction on the west side.  The gym would hover in their rear views.

The district stopped construction. Jim Burkey, the district's Chief Operations Officer said crews leveled the ground and moved a gas line in preparation for construction.  Lee said school officials put the cost of that construction at about $140,000, money he calls wasted.

Posted: Monday, February 18 2013, 09:43 PM CST