“Why are we here?” asked Bonnie Cotter, Head of School at Davidson Day.
“To get a gym!” yelled a member of the assembled student body. And that was just about right, as the school was gathered Friday to break ground for a new $2 million arts and athletics center.
Ms. Cotter invited a representative of the three school divisions – upper, middle and lower – to each take a shovel.
“The construction is underway!” she announced as the trio took on their task with gusto.
“Dig! Dig! Dig!” the students chanted as Haley Griffin (lower school), Jason Chinuntdet (middle school – wearing a cap) and Nick Kluttz (upper school) officially broke ground for the center. With them in the photo above are Ms. Cotter and also Kevin Buechler, who the school has recently hired as the new dean of student life and athletic director.
The arts and athletics center will complete the campus for Davidson Day. The private school – which has traditional, Montessori and college prep programs – moved in the fall to its prominent new 15-acre location off of the I-77 entrance to Davidson. The new center will include a 245-seat performance hall alongside a 9,412-sq.-ft. gym with stands that will be able to seat 392.
The school intends for the facility to serve its sports teams, music and theater departments, but also to provide a new performance space for “the Greater Davidson community.”
Davidson Day announced in February its plans to build the center, which will connect to the existing two-story brick school building from the east side of the campus along Griffeth Street, filling in the open space between the school and the the Spinnaker Cove residential development.
Construction should begin this month and continue through the summer.
“We’re shooting for Nov. 1st to have it done,” Ms. Cotter said.
Festivities surrounding the ground breaking included a preview of the spring musical, “Snoopy!” The Peanuts Gang actors performed a song on the school’s playground. This time next year, they should be able to perform instead in a brand new theater.
Photo: Most hands went up when Ms. Cotter asked for volunteers to move the first shovels of dirt at the ground breaking.
