NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — An auxiliary gym built to provide expanded athletic practice and play opportunities for both Brandywine Community Schools student-athletes and community members will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday.

The ceremony will be hosted at 7 p.m. in front of the new center, which is behind Brandywine High and Middle School’s front parking lot off of Bell Road.

The 14,400-square-foot center has been in the works since 2016, but it broke ground on the project late last August, just before the school year began.

The project cost $2,022,000, said Superintendent Karen Weimer. It was largely funded through the school’s own budget thanks the passing of a sinking fund.

On Monday, 22 days before the 2019-2020 school year begins, school officials will recognize the center as an official part of their campus with about 10 minutes of speeches and an opportunity for tours, said Superintendent Karen Weimer.

“It’s a wonderful facility. It’s a great thing to provide to our students as well as the community,” she said. “It’s going to help so much in the long run in opening up our facilities.”

The facility will feature a weight room, changing rooms and restrooms. The gym itself will contain three volleyball courts, a basketball court and an indoor track largely intended for walking.

Not all features, like the weight room, have been completed yet, said Brandywine High and Middle School Principal Patrick Weckel, but they will be set up in the near future.

Weckel said the facility was needed because of a lack of space for the district’s plethora of athletic, art and other. events that utilize gym space.

Many practices for first-year, junior varsity, varsity and seventh and eighth grade sports were confined to the combined middle school and high school gymnasium.

Sports teams unable to fit a practice time at that gym were sent to the Brandywine Elementary School gym.

That conflicted with the district’s drama department, however, which used the space’s stage for rehearsals and performances. It had to take down set each time a sports practice was hosted.

Then there was the weight room, Weckel said. It was occupying the space of two classrooms.

“Right now, our numbers are about 430, so next year, we’re going to be a Class B,” he said. “I need those classrooms. We already have carpet ordered, and we have plans in place to turn that weight room back into classrooms, so it’s really benefited the school as well.”

The center, he said, would allow practices, games and tournaments to be hosted at reasonable times with less stress.

“In theory, if we play some games at the same time, it will alleviate some of the late nights for parents,” Weckel said.

The center could also offer more opportunities for community integration with the school district, he said.

Community members will be able to utilize the indoor track, but times and dates have not been determined.

Organizations and non-school sports teams — like independent cheerleading contests or nonprofits hosting events — could rent out space. Days, times and methods to rent have not yet been determined.

The extra gym facility, extra money generated from the sinking fund and fewer groups vying for space will allow the district’s performing arts program to thrive at the Brandywine Elementary gym stage, Weimer said.

“We were blessed with very active students,” Weimer said. “They have wonderful opportunities to be involved, whether arts or athletics, and we didn’t always have the space for it.”

The future opening of the space comes as Brandywine High School is expected to receive the largest number of students in the past decade, Weckel said.

Correction, 1:40 p.m., 8/9/2019: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the time the ribbon-cutting ceremony would take place. The correct time is 7 p.m. We are happy to make changes.