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Teachers at Huxford Elementary School have cause to be excited.

HES is one of many Escambia County schools that was placed on the Alabama State Department of Education’s Capital Plan Layout Report for an additional gymnasium.

Principal Leah Fuqua said the capital improvement project will be built during the 2023-24 school year. According to the ADOE, the budget for the project is slated to be $2.5 million.

“Principals many years before me have been begging, requesting, begging and asking and pleading,” Fuqua said. “We have been asking annually. It’s just that this time it has come, and for whatever reason they have planned for it to be done.”

Fuqua said the new gym will be used for physical education (PE) and competition purposes, along with having additional classrooms in the back of the new building.

Fuqua said the new gym will be located adjacent to the school’s exhisting kitchen and cafeteria area. She added that the gym will connect to the rest of the main building and will include a walkway.

When asked why it’s important for HES to have a gym, Fuqua said it’s because of space. Enrollment has increase at HES, she added.

“Right now, we only have one auditorium,” she said. “We have art classes in there once a month. We also have our lunchroom and it’s so small. Due to COVID guidelines, we’re having to use the auditorium as a make shift lunch room for first and third grade.”

Fuqua said it’s important for children to play consistently. The new gym will provide a venue for students to play no matter the weather, she said.

Fuqua said the teachers are quite thrilled about the forthcoming gym.

“They’re anxiously awaiting that day to break ground,” she said. “To know that it’s on the horizon eases peoples’ minds and worries, and things like that.”

Fuqua said the school wishes to thank system board members, Superintendent Michele McClung and Assistant Superintendent Sandra Reid.

“To me, they’re the ones that make this happen,” she said.