Lafayette Middle using planned Fit Court project as springboard to outdoor improvements | Education

Plans to install a new outdoor gym at Lafayette Middle School are moving forward and the school’s principal is using the momentum to jumpstart larger plans for an overhaul of the campus’s outdoor space.

The outdoor gym, which will be located on campus green space across from Iris Lane, will be available for student and public use.

The project cleared a main administrative hurdle at the Lafayette Parish School Board’s June meeting, when members unanimously approved the project’s cooperative use agreement with Lafayette Consolidated Government and appropriated funds for the project — $33,000 to fence the court off from the school and $28,750 for the court’s construction.

The Fitness Court was the brainchild of city council member Nanette Cook, a retired physical education teacher. Cook kicked the project off by securing a $30,000 grant in 2019 from the National Fitness Campaign, a nonprofit group who uses their Fitness Courts to promote outdoor wellness opportunities.

The Fitness Court is a 38-foot by 38-foot outdoor gym with 130 elements including plyometric boxes, a shock absorbing sports floor and dual layer, powder-coated carbon steel pull up bars and rings. The court supports body weight exercises focused on seven key zones: core, squat, push, lunge, pull, agility and bend, according to the National Fitness Campaign website.

Lafayette Middle’s court will be the third in the state. After two years of effort, Cook said it’s a relief to be close to the finish line on the project.

“I’m excited. When I actually see it I’ll pinch myself because I may not believe it until I see it,” she said.

Cook said the first payment for the equipment was sent to the National Fitness Campaign on June 25 and the system is expected to arrive by mid-July.

State Rep. Stuart Bishop, of Lafayette, and his company, Baldwin Redi-Mix, are donating the concrete foundation for the court. The goal is to pour the foundation by early July, weather permitting, and have crews from either public works or parks and recreation assemble the Fitness Court in late July or early August in time for the new school year, Cook said.

The court will be available exclusively to Lafayette Middle students and faculty from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and to the public after school hours and on the weekends, according to LCG and LPSS’s shared-use agreement.

“The more people we can get to use these outdoor facilities the more we can push to get more of these facilities. I really hope the public jumps in and, if nothing else, I hope they really use it at school. I know as a P.E. teacher I would’ve loved to have something like this,” Cook said.

For Lafayette Middle Principal Tia Trahan, the Fitness Court’s addition is the first phase in a larger planned overhaul of the school’s outdoor space.

In Phase 2, the school is planning to add a running and walking track for P.E. courses and bleachers so parents can watch their children during sporting activities, like soccer, rather than supply their own lawn chairs. Trahan said planning is in its infancy, but she’s worked with the school district on cost estimates and they project the track would cost $50,000 and the bleachers about $30,000.

The goal is to execute the track and bleachers simultaneously. Fundraising efforts in partnership with Love Our Schools have begun, with roughly $9,000 generated through SOLA Giving Day. Trahan said they’re hopeful additional fundraising, coupled with matching funds from the school district, will be enough to reach their goal.

Early discussions are that the outdoor track area may also be accessible to the public, like the Fitness Court, the principal said.

Down the line the plan is to have a Phase 3, where the school will add a multipurpose outdoor activities space that can accommodate outdoor student learning and additional programming.

“We want to get [the students] to recognize the benefit of living a healthy lifestyle and how exercise plays a vital part in that. We want to have the right equipment out there for them so that they can take advantage of everything we have here at school, because they’re not always afforded access to the right equipment in their neighborhoods,” she said.

District 7 school board member Kate Labue, who served as the school board liaison for the project, said the Fitness Court addition provides age-appropriate and diverse physical education programming options for the middle school students — a need heightened by limited athletic facilities at many middle schools.

“It will enhance [the students] not only physically but it enhances them all around. The building itself is so old, that this is a way to update the facilities while also bringing the public to the school and drumming up public support for the school,” Labue said.