Something to cheer about: Bleachers returning to Burncoat High

WORCESTER — When Burncoat High School basketball teams take the court for the first time this school year, they’ll have something they’ve been missing the last few years — a rowdy home crowd cheering them on from bleachers.

After having removed the bleachers from the school’s gymnasium a few years ago, students and families have only had standing room only at games while the Worcester Public School district waited for the budget to allow them to purchase replacement seating.

“It's an ultimate feeling playing for your team on your home court,” said Richard Ikonen, the district’s director of facilities. “It's a great honor to be able to give them back their ability to host the game here.”

Ikonen said that, because the gym lacked bleachers, the school was unable to host district home games for a few years. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association prohibits district games from being played on courts that do not have bleachers, he said.

Home court advantage

But with the new bleachers, to be installed by Aug. 24, the school’s teams will start to have some home court advantage again.

There are four sets of bleachers, said Ryan B. Hacker, assistant director of facilities, that are powered by switches installed on the gym’s walls that will allow them to open and close automatically.

There will be two sets of bleachers on each side of the court, near the corners of the gym, and bring the gym’s capacity to 796, including eight accessible seats, Hacker said.

Until a few years ago, the gym was still using the original bleachers that were installed when the school was first constructed in the 1960s.

But despite their best efforts to maintain them and keep on functioning, they were left with no choice but to replace them after “many, many years of use,” Hacker said. They were in a state of disrepair and deemed unsafe.

“Budget constraints dictate when you can put them back in, so the district had to wait two or three years,” Ikonen said. “They did a very good job of budgeting for the FY24 fiscal year, so we were able to put them in.”

Floor redone

While the original bleachers couldn’t be salvaged, the original hardwood floors, the same that players like Burncoat great Michael Bradley used to play on, are still being maintained and used.

“This floor is in remarkably good shape for its age,” Ikonen said. “It looks like that because of regular upkeep and maintenance.”

The floors had been refinished with scratch coats, waxed and resealed, he said. It is maintenance that is regularly done every three to five years, Ikonen said.

The renovations at Burncoat cost approximately $250,000.

Both he and Hacker said they were looking forward to attending the first game held in the gym after the work it has undergone.

More improvements in district

They were both also looking forward to seeing other projects being finished this summer by the time school starts.

One of the biggest projects this summer was making the Worcester Arts Magnet School compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The $2.5 million Massachusetts School Building Authority-funded project includes an indoor ramp, entrance and exit egress, and classroom renovations.

Hacker said the project also involves renovating bathrooms to make them accessible for wheelchair users.

“It involves a fairly significant gut renovation of those bathrooms,” Hacker said. “It’s not like you can just necessarily move a toilet over three inches, you're gutting it down to the structure and replumbing those fixtures.”

Some of the other projects this summer include:

• Challenge and Reach Academy: A fire-suppression system was installed, as part of a multiphase ADA-compliance project. The previous ADA-compliance construction included significant building upgrades and elevators being repaired. The total cost approximately was $1.75 million.

• Chandler Magnet School: Classroom floors and lockers were renovated, as well as renovations to air-quality assessment and classroom wall installation. The cost was approximately $272,000.

• Elm Park Community School: Gym floor finish and painting, which approximately cost $5,000.

The goal, Ikonen said, is to maintain the buildings to increase their lifespans and avoid needing to construct new buildings.

The school officials said the district has requested building construction project funding from the MSBA for Burncoat High School 13 times since 2008, including one made recently this year.

“We're actively pursuing to get these facilities replaced but the allocation of funds, even from MSBA, is relatively small given the size of our district and the amount of buildings we have in our portfolio,” Hacker said.

The district will continue to pursue funding to replace buildings like Burncoat, Ikonen said, but will also work to maintain the current buildings and make sure the needs of students and staff are being met for the time being.

And the Burncoat gym renovations are just an example of that, he said.

“It’s important to us, but it’s even more important to the kids,” Ikonen said. “They’re very proud to be a part of this Burncoat family, and they belong in front of their family and friends in their school.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Something to cheer about: Bleachers back at Burncoat High