May 1, 2025 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

High School to host open house tonight

Tonight the community can see what $6.75 million in upgrades looks like.


St. Joseph-Ogden High School is hosting an open house from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The community can see the new auditorium, weight room and wrestling facility. The upgrades also included a geothermal project for the 1926 part of the building.


“This is being paid for with a combination of bond money, sales tax funds, and health/life/safety funds,” said Superintendent Brian Brooks.


Brooks said there are a few reasons the district thought these particular upgrades were important.
“We really felt that our fine arts and our wrestling programs needed their own space in order for those programs to thrive,” he said. “Sharing that space in the old gym was doable, but it did hinder each program.”


The former space was not a great space for drama productions, Brooks said.


The district also thought the 1926 buildings needed some upgrades to modernize the building and provide a better educational environment for the students.


These items include new ceilings and lighting in the hallways and classrooms, painting the old brick in the hallways, wall graphics, new doors for each classroom and office located in that building, and then a geothermal system for heating and cooling which will eliminate the window air conditions and radiators. 


With the district renovating the weight room into a new wrestling facility, it forced them into finding a new home for a weight room. 


“We decided to add on a weight room to the west of our locker rooms,” Brooks said. “The new weight room will be utilized by almost every SJO student through either strength training class, PE, or the sport in which they play.”


Brooks said that while the weight room may be the most visible addition, the new auditorium has a “wow” factor.


“The transformation of the old gym into an auditorium has been amazing to watch,” he said.  “This is going to be an incredible space both for our fine arts students, as well as our entire student body as we plan to use this space for a variety of things. We have many teachers planning to use this space for classroom activities too.”


Brooks said the upgrades are a benefit to the district and create a better educational environment for our students because the weight room and auditorium will be used as classrooms.


“The hallways are now more welcoming for our students to walk through, and give them a sense of pride as they go through the building,” Brooke said. “We will have much quieter classrooms next year in the 1926 building once the geothermal system is fully installed, which creates a much better learning environment for our students. The auditorium gives us a space to hold class meetings, staff meetings, and various public events that we host that parents and community members attend. All in addition of course to our fine arts events that will now have a state-of-the-art auditorium for a high school to perform in.”

Banner
Related Posts

Mayor asks residents to decorate windows, sidewalks

March 30, 2020

March 30, 2020

The St. Joseph Record and Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges are asking village residents to decorate their front windows, driveways or sidewalks....

Fall into a ‘Trap’ today at SJO

October 20, 2019

October 20, 2019

Today at 2 p.m. a mystery will unfold at St. Joseph-Ogden High School. The SJO drama department is producing “Trap”...

St. Joseph Middle School 8th grade Honor Roll

November 14, 2023

November 14, 2023

FIRST NAME LAST NAME Kira Aase Miles Atwood Lucas Barton Coleton Beckett Draven Black Blake Cavanaugh Hunter Cler Alivia Combs...

‘I am proud of all of us’ by Kristen Costa

June 16, 2020

June 16, 2020

To the St. Joseph-Ogden High School Class of 2020, when I began writing this speech, I didn’t even know where...

Around Town March 4-8

March 4, 2019

March 4, 2019

If you want your event included please email us at stjosephrecord@gmail.com March 4 Story Time for Children 6:30 p.m. St...

CU Feed the Need to distribute food this week

August 26, 2020

August 26, 2020

CU Feed the need has even more food to distribute this week thanks to the St. Joseph Food Pantry. The...

SJO hopeful to keep in-person learning through end of semester

December 9, 2020

December 9, 2020

Six staff members at St. Joseph-Ogden High School are currently in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 or being a...

Aden brings Easter joy to community

April 15, 2020

April 15, 2020

The Easter Bunny made sure children in St. Joseph had a happy holiday this past weekend. St. Joseph-Ogden Senior Lindsey...

Community comes together to ‘Back the Blackers’

March 26, 2022

March 26, 2022

John and Lori Blacker were a part of the St Joseph community for more than 20 years. Now the community...

Live at SJO school board, Oct. 24, 2022

October 24, 2022

October 24, 2022

It’s the special education department and me here at the school board. They are doing a curriculum review. (I seriously...

St. Joseph Middle School 6th grade high honor roll

June 7, 2023

June 7, 2023

LAST NAME FIRST NAME Barbee Charlene Bewley Reid Blunier Brady Buckley Nora Buhs Ella Chahine Sophia Christians Charlotte Clark Grant...

SJO third quarter high honor roll

March 29, 2021

March 29, 2021

FreshmanAllen, LoganBaltzell, OwenBeetz, SamanthaBurkhalter, ChloeDivan, RachelEricksen, SadieFrick, AddisonGetty, GraceHaake, LoganHarper, ChloeHarris, RachelHausman, BrodyHueber, AnnabelleJacob, TannerJolley, KyaJones, HeleneKibler, ToriLeVeck, PatrickLewis, HaydenLewis,...

District asks residents to approve referendum

May 27, 2022

May 27, 2022

The St. Joseph CCSD #169 is asking residents to approve a tax increase. On June 28, the district is asking...

St. Joseph Middle School Announces 7th Grade Honor Roll

April 16, 2019

April 16, 2019

7TH GRADE HIGH HONORS Logan Allen Owen Baltzell Addisyn Barclay Samantha Beetz Kyler Brown Chloe Burkhalter Rachel Divan Joseph Frasca...

Graduation main address by Flannery McCorkle

May 19, 2021

May 19, 2021

Good afternoon, Spartans As I look out at my classmates, I feel truly blessed to have been a part of this...

Comments
Leave a Reply