Staff and students returned from Thanksgiving break to a ¨broken¨ gym. But to this day, the reopening date has yet to be determined.

While coming close to four months of no acces to the gym, many rumors and misconceptions have been spread throughout Edison regarding the cause, its progress, and the big question of ¨When will it re-open?¨ But Mr. D’Elia, Assistant Principal of our Athletic Department here at Thomas Edison, gives us information that debunks those misconceptions.

Some misconceptions include…

Students are no longer required to be physically active during their gym period.

Currently, students are in the auditorium during their phys. ed. period, however, Mr. D’Elia said, “Students are still required to engage in physical activity. What I tell gym teachers to do is to make sure that students are not just sitting around and hanging out. I personally don’t think walking around the auditorium is beneficial to students, so if the gym reopening gets more delayed, I will change the curriculum to accommodate our situation.” 

Students won’t be changing into their gym uniform anymore.

Despite that as of right now, both the gym and locker rooms are not cleared for students to be in, Mr. D’Elia said that he is pushing for the phys. ed. teachers to give extra credit to those students who wear gym attire so that they are prepared to engage in physical activity.

“What I encourage my students to do is to show up in gear like sweatpants, leggings, and sneakers so that they can still participate in physical activity… If the locker rooms open before the gym does, I will allow students to change into their uniform and keep their backpacks in there while we stay in the auditorium or the field.”

The gym will not be ready until the 2020-2021 school year.

Though the construction period seems to be lasting a long time, the gym should be clear for activity again in two weeks.

“We are expecting the gym to re-open in two weeks. We initially thought that when we came back for the second term, everything would be back to normal, but it kept getting pushed back. They got the work done really fast, but the inspections and approval are what’s taking a long time,” said Mr. D’Elia.