Bois D’Arc Elementary gym gets remodel after storm damage

The Bois D’Arc Elementary School gym has received repairs following harsh storms in the spring. High wind speeds left heavy damage to the roof, allowing rain to cause water damage to the wooden floors and wooden bleachers.
The gym had gone largely unchanged, at least cosmetically, for a long while until powerful winds demanded a facelift, said Shane Medlin, Superintendent of Ash Grove School District. During the storms in June and April, the roof was largely ripped off of the building, allowing rain to come in. This soaked the vintage wooden floors and bleachers, according to Medlin.
“The floor was a total loss; they pulled up the subfloor, and it was not salvageable,” said Medlin.
Though the roof is fixed, repainted, and no longer leaking, the floor has yet to be installed, using a snap-in modular floor, similar to what’s used on college volleyball courts, in the meantime. This is only a temporary fix said Medlin, though the floor can be reused in a different location once it has served its purpose at Bois D’Arc.
Cost of repair
In total, the roof repair would have cost more than $103,000, but the lengthy project was paid for almost entirely using insurance money, per Medlin, who said that the school only needed to provide the $1,000 deductible. Because the repairs are still in progress, there is currently no figure on how much the project will cost at completion.
The insurance is set to cover repairs as well as renovations, according to Medlin, who said that they are also looking to add new volleyball and basketball flooring inserts, as well as new goals and lighting.
This repair, though, was planned long before the storm ever rolled through. The Ash Grove Board of Education had planned to make repairs to the gym using the funds from a passed bond issue in April of 2025; this bond, among other things, allocated funds to update the gymnasium roof. Following this storm and the ensuing insurance payments, the money that was originally to be used from the bond has been freed up for other purposes, namely updating the roofs and HVAC systems of other areas in the district, some of which are over 30 years old.
The gym is already open for students, but repairs will not be done until later in the year, said Medlin. Because he wanted the workers to be able to complete the project with little interference, the flooring is not expected to be installed until the end of Thanksgiving break, giving the workers more time to finish the remodel.