Students will have to put up with the parking situation near the fieldhouse parking lot for the foreseeable future, as a two-story weight room is being constructed adjacent to the fieldhouse.

A bond was approved on Jan. 26, 2021, for around $7-$10 million for SM North according to Chief Communications Officer David Smith. The weight room will cost $4.6 million out of that bond.

SM North’s current weight room is old and small, while the other Shawnee Mission schools have much more modern and bigger weight rooms, so the school district wanted to renovate the weight room.

The new weight room will allow more equipment, Principal David Ewers said. He also said it will offer a wider selection of activities, and an expanded weights program. The construction located near the fieldhouse is planned to end by June, 2022

“It was going to be the most cost-effective to have the weight room there,” Ewers said about the location. “It will enable us to have more square footage than we would if we had it somewhere else.”

Currently, the school has a weight room in the building; it will remain in use through the end of this year.

Students will be able to use the facility once school starts in 2022, which will open the current weight room to the NJROTC so they can use the room for classes and marksmanship courses.

Along with having more capacity for students, the weight room will be available to all students and staff at designated times.

“We offer weights seven periods a day […] and those classes are already pretty full,”
Ewers said. “It’s a room that will benefit the overall fitness of everyone in the building, should they take the class or utilize the fitness center component of it.”