Jackson puts North Elementary gym in ballot language for Prop N

If Proposition N passes Tuesday, April 4, North Elementary will finally get its new gymnasium.

Voters there were disappointed when the school did not get the gym built as part of Proposition J, the district's previous tax initiative.

Jackson officials, in their communications prior to that tax initiative, had told voters a gym in that school would be built, but the district ultimately decided just prior to construction that the need for a middle school gymnasium was more urgent.

This time, unlike Prop J, the district has put the North gymnasium project in the ballot language for Proposition N. The school will also get space for up to four more classrooms as well.

Proposition N, a companion to Proposition I, will need a 4/7 majority to pass. It will pump $60 million into several construction projects across the district. Proposition I, if passed by a simple majority, will provide the district with about $3 million more per year for operating costs to increase teacher pay, among other operations objectives.

While it didn't deliver the gym as expected, Prop J did expand North Elementary. The school has a new wing of classrooms and a new library thanks to the last tax proposal.

Adding the gym in Proposition N will eliminate a lot of daily work and give the Fruitland community more space to meet and play, according to North Elementary principal Andlle Naeter.

The school's current gymnasium doubles as the school's cafeteria. Staff at the school have coined a humorous nickname for the space: the gymateria and cafenasium.

North Elementary's combination cafeteria/gymnasium would be reimagined if school district patrons approve a tax proposal on the Tuesday, April 4, ballot.Submitted

North Elementary's combination cafeteria/gymnasium would be reimagined if school district patrons approve a tax proposal on the Tuesday, April 4, ballot.Submitted

Naeter said the school's custodian, Larry Harris, has to transform the space twice a day, and sometimes more if special assemblies are scheduled.

"Mr. Larry is our world-famous custodian. That man puts tables down, puts them up, puts them down again," Naeter said. The current cafeteria/gym space is used for breakfast, four physical education classes and lunch.

But Naeter said the gym will also be a gathering point for the community, where Optimist basketball games and Boy Scout and Girl Scout events can take place. She said the Fruitland community is "hands-on" and close-knit. She said she believes the gym will address community needs beyond just the school.

Extra classroom space will help the school handle its growing student body.

All of the school's classrooms are at full capacity. Proposition N would add space for four more classrooms, leaving the school with some room to grow. Currently, she said there are two sections in the third grade. Naeter said she believes the school will need three sections in a short time, judging by enrollment and population trends. The added space would give the school room for three sections in every grade, which would also help keep teachers at their current grade levels, rather than being moved from one grade to another, depending on space needs, driven by student population. Some of those plans may be dependent on the passage of Prop I, which increases operating expenditures for the district.

Naeter said her read on the community is that people in Fruitland were disappointed in the decision to not build a gym, but she said she doesn't think they've lost patrons' trust.