St. Georges School says it hopes to break ground by early summer on a $6 million athletic center at the small private schools campus north of Spokane.


Pat Spanjer, spokeswoman for St. Georges, says the planned 26,000-square-foot structure is to be built at the west end of the campus, behind the current indoor athletic facility, called Metters Gym, which will continue to be used as well. The school, which teaches kindergarten through 12th grade, hopes to complete the building in time for the start of the 2005-2006 school year, he says.


St. Georges is raising funds for the project.


The single-story structure would include a gymnasium with a hardwood-floor area large enough to accommodate two volleyball or basketball courts. The gymnasium would include bleacher seating for up to 800 people.


The building also would house a weight room and spa, four players locker rooms, a coaches locker room, and offices for the schools athletic director and physical-education teachers.


The facility will be named the Errol Schmidt Athletic Center. Errol Schmidt taught mathematics to middle-school students at St. Georges for 35 years and coached various sports there during that time. He retired last year.


Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, designed the new athletic facility. A general contractor for the project hasnt been selected yet.


Spanjer says the school decided it needs a new athletic facility to provide a larger venue for its indoor sporting events, and also to provide additional floor space for extracurricular athletics.


With only one gym currently, varsity and junior-varsity teams practice after school, but teams for underclassmen and middle-school students must practice during their physical-education classes.


If all of the players are committed to being in physical education at a certain time, it really binds our curriculum development, Spanjer says.


Fund raising for the new athletic facility is part of a larger $10 million capital campaign that St. Georges is undertaking, called the 50th Anniversary Campaign. The other $4 million will go toward a tuition-assistance endowment, a faculty-development endowment, and smaller campus upgrades, including remodeling parts of Metters Gym.


Spanjer declines for now to disclose how much money the school has raised so far. She says, however, that the Pacific Northwest Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded St. Georges a $3.5 million challenge grant through which it gave to the school $2.5 million and said it will release the remaining $1 million after the school raises $2.5 million from other sources.


St. Georges currently has 362 students, with a maximum class size of 17 students. The school will celebrate its 50-year anniversary in 2005.