News Photo by Julie Goldberg The Rogers City High School fitness room, as seen here on Thursday, is being expanded to give students the opportunity to work out and stay active during and after school.

ROGERS CITY — Rogers City Middle School and High School students soon will have the chance to stay active while at school.

Rogers City Area Schools Superintendent Nicholas Hein said Thursday that the district is moving forward with a personal fitness room for students.

“We are expanding this room and we are looking at creating a state-of-the-art fitness room for the kids,” Hein said. “One thing that is so important to remember, especially all of us northern Michigan residents, the winter can be rough, and having an outlet to be able to take and work on yourself, take care of yourself, there’s nothing more important in this life and that’s health.”

Hein said that, for a Class C school such as Rogers City, the old room was so small that one class couldn’t fit in it, but the new room will be able to fit an entire class with extra space.

The new room will be about 2,000 square feet.

The goal for the 2019-20 school year is to have two classes use the fitness room. Hein said the fitness room will also be open for students after school. The long-term goal is to maximize the use of the school, Hein said, and give students something they can be proud of and have school be someplace they want to go to.

Hein said Rogers City wants to be at the top with being able to teach its students how to take care of themselves now and later in life.

“On the students’ behalf, these are such important skills for being able to cope with the ups and downs of life and taking care of yourself, and we want to make sure we’re doing everything to offer them to kids,” he said.

Physical Education teacher Chad Coolman and Athletic Director Samantha Amrhein will take part in designing the fitness room. Hein said the district knows what equipment will be in the room.

Donations are needed to finish the fitness room. Hein said the district has about $15,000 of the needed $40,000 right now. He said those who donate more than $100 will have their name placed on a brick wall in the fitness room.

“The sooner we get to our goal and order the equipment, we might be able to have this in place and ready to go this year, and that is a goal,” Hein said. “A little physical activity goes a long ways with keeping the mind from wandering. It’s been a long time coming, we’re looking forward to finishing it.”

People can call the high school at 989-734-9170 if they have any questions or would like to donate to the new fitness room. Hein said there is account with the district for the donations.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.