Officials at Crow Creek Tribal Schools are counting on a new gymnasium to lure students back to the Stephan school.

The school celebrated next week's bid letting for a new gym with a groundbreaking ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 5.

Construction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded building is expected to start April 1, with a completion date of January 2009, according to Superintendent Silas Blaine.

Since the school's gym was condemned and closed five years ago, enrollment at the school has fallen, Blaine said.

Located 13 miles north of Fort Thompson on the campus of a former mission, Crow Creek serves students living in Crow Creek, Fort Thompson and Big Bend. Crow Creek is a day school and offers students in grades seven through 12 the option of boarding at the school.

"We've gotten kids from all of the reservations in South Dakota and out of state," Blaine said.

The high school once had as many as 320 students, but enrollment is now at 140, Blaine said.

When the gymnasium was condemned and closed five years ago, the school started to lose students who wanted to play basketball and volleyball, he said.

Blaine estimates that the loss of the gym has cost the school as many as 100 students - 50 boys and 50 girls.

"Kids didn't want to come to the school because we didn't have a gym," he said.

High school athletes practice and play games in a small gym at Fort Thompson, where the elementary school is located.

Without a gym, there is no place for middle and high school students to gather for assemblies and pep rallies.

The loss of the gym, which was demolished, also meant there was no place for boarding students to exercise during their free time, Blaine said.

Any physical education classes at the school are now held outside - weather permitting, he said.

Although the groundbreaking is a little premature, Blaine said, the pending construction is a reaffirmation that "life is going on" at the school that has faced several challenges in recent years.

Many of the school's buildings date back to the mid-1950s, when the Immaculate Conception Indian Mission was in operation.

"Our campus is old," Blaine said.

A fire destroyed the school's dormitory in 2005.

After the loss of the dormitory, the school built temporary modular units for dorms, and then an insurance settlement was delayed, strapping the school for cash.

One year ago, the school was so short of money that staff members took partial payments on their paychecks for the final months of the school year.

"There's been negative after negative," Blaine said.

The school is back on track financially, and the prospect of a new gym should bring students back to Crow Creek.

Building a new gym is "finally something positive" for the school, Blaine said.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com