Renovations to Grove City High School's fitness center were supposed to kick off in March, but plans are on pause.

The fitness center's plans come after a need in the school district for a larger, more equipped space for student-athletes but now those plans have changed.

The Grove City Area School Board is halting a fitness center project after an ad-hoc committee suggested they get more time to evaluate the idea. Disagreements regarding the fitness center project were brought to the school board's attention at the beginning of February.  

"It has been a cart before the horse process," Stephanie McCreary told the school board Monday. "Teachers were not asked about new physical education space and curriculum, sports teams were not asked about what their needs would be, and students were not asked if they use the room when they use it, or why they dont." 

The plan was to combine the weight room with the new fitness center and move into the existing wrestling room. But the majority of the school board voted to remove any remaining work in the project fitness center on Monday.

"Capitulation and cooperation are two very different things," Ed Phipps said to the board prior to the vote. "There's only one permanent padded room owned by the school district. The possibilities for that space are limited only by your imagination and curriculum."

"This seems like a waste of time and funds regarding sports teams practicing," added Ric Blanchard. "Especially the wrestling team if they were to be relocated."

District-wide surveys showed people were not in favor of the fitness center's relocation, citing a potential disturbance to the wrestling team along with a variety of other sports. Studies point to structural damage and aging equipment in the current weight room. A handful of Grove City High School wrestlers were at Monday's school board meeting, standing in solidarity against the fitness center. 

"There was enough voice on putting a pause on it that I listened," explained Board President Ryan Thomas to 21 News. "There was enough movement to put a pause on that and there wasn't enough movement on keeping with the current plan that we had in place."

With extensive electrical, mechanical, and plumbing upgrades planned for the high school, Board President Ryan Thomas added a fitness center revamp isn't dead in the water, but on the backburner for now.

"Can we maybe do a larger encompassing look at our overall facility," he added. "We know we have football fieldhouse needs. What does that look like? How does that affect our other sports teams? Can we do something at the fieldhouse? We plan to go back to our architect to help with the drawing board."

So far, the district has raised nearly $150k to put toward the fitness center.

There is currently no timeline for when plans could continue.