New multi-purpose facilities under construction at both Purnell Swett and St. Pauls high schools are progressing well and should be ready for use by this fall.
The 17,500-square-foot buildings will both have a large variety of potential uses for the athletic and physical education departments at the two schools.
“The key to these is, they are classrooms, and they’re classrooms that are going to be designed for both males and females,” said Bobby Locklear, the Public Schools of Robeson County assistant superintendent for auxiliary services who is overseeing the project. “We’re going to have weight equipment that can be used by either male or female. There will be an open area for our P.E. teachers to get in there and work with the students, and it’s an open area.”
About half of each building is a large open area with a turf surface, which can be used for practice or conditioning work for nearly every sport. This includes the ability of football teams to run drills, or even to hold an indoor practice in the event of hot or inclement weather; partitions can also be put in place to turn the area into areas for batting practice for baseball or softball, or for other sports teams to run various drills.