With the new Talon Community Fitness Center ready for use this school year, rainy days and winter weather won’t mean long periods of inactivity among students at Southern Door County School District. 

“I’m imagining December, January, February, March and being in a heated, huge, indoor turf facility,” said Kevin Krutzik, Southern Door County School District Superintendent. “I mean, what an option to have. It’s phenomenal.”

The center’s indoor turf field is 40 yards by 60 yards – a third of a football field in length and just over a full football field in width. The turf is marked with yard lines, a baseball diamond and a softball diamond with room for a batting cage on one side and running lanes on the other. In addition to the turf field, the fitness center also has a full room of workout equipment.

But Krutzik stressed that the center can be used for more than just physical forms of education. Any class can use the space for out-of-classroom activities. Krutzik imagines, for instance, science classes making use of the tall ceilings to perform experiments. 

The completion of the 27,000 square-foot indoor, heated athletic facility marks the end of the district’s referendum project.

Voters approved a $14.9 million capital referendum in November of 2022 which has funded the past two summers of construction. This construction also saw the remodel of the school’s art rooms, Family and Consumer Education (FACE) rooms, septic system and district offices.

“We’re very fortunate to have what we have,” said Dan Viste, maintenance and transportation director for the district. 

In the tours of the facility the two have given so far, Krutzik and Viste both report a positive reception from the community.

“People are very impressed with what we have to offer at Southern Door,” Viste said.

As the name implies, the Talon Community Fitness Center will not be only for student use. The center will be open to the public outside of school hours – early mornings, evenings and weekends. Community members will be able to sign up through the school and pay a membership fee for access. School board members will review the specifics of this program at their Sept. 16 meeting.

“This will be an awesome facility to have, not only for our students to use but also it will be open to the public as well,” Krutzik said.

Southern Door County School District will host the grand opening of the Talon Community Fitness Center on Friday, Sept. 20 from 4-6:30 pm prior to their annual Homecoming festivities. Krutzik said that community members can reach out to the Southern Door County School District office – 920.825.7311 – to individually tour the new facility, “Come on down and check it out.”

Other Referendum Construction Projects

The school’s new stand-alone greenhouse is also ready for use in the coming school year as part of the agriscience program. While the greenhouse was part of the original referendum plan, it was temporarily shelved due to increased material costs and the cost of replacing the septic system in the first phase of construction, according to an Aug. 8 press release.

By March of this year, however, the board announced it would use the project’s contingency budget – money set aside for unforeseen expenses – to fund the construction of the greenhouse. 

In the summer of 2023, the first phase of the remodel occurred. At this point, the old district offices in a stand-alone building came down, and the school’s old fitness center, located at the front of the school, became the new district offices. The parking lot has also been expanded.

The art rooms still occupy the same space in the school, but a center storage section was removed to make each room larger. Each room was also outfitted with new rows of sinks. 

Consumer education classrooms were updated to include a new commercial kitchen.

Students were able to use these facilities for the 2023-24 school year. In order to stick with the timeline, the school board held off on replacing the art and consumer education room floors until phase two, which began the following summer. 

“All of the rooms look fantastic, certainly an improvement from way back when,” Viste said. 

Many of the remodeled classrooms were originally built in the 1960s and 70s.

Beyond the more visible changes to classrooms and offices, the first phase of construction also completed much work below ground. The school previously ran on two separate septic systems built in the 1980s – one for the elementary school and one for the secondary schools. 

While a new septic system was not originally part of the plan, it was recommended due to its age and location.