CASTLE ROCK — The town’s middle school students have a place to work out in style — and the public should be able to join in by summer.

The new fitness room is part of a three-year $638,000 federal grant the school district received in 2007 to revamp its physical education classes away from team sports and toward life-long fitness. A similar high-tech fitness room was added at the high school in 2007.

The middle school project, though, isn’t just for students. The area, in an old shop room, was specifically designed for public access, complete with a separate entrance and bathroom on site. District officials are still working out the details but hope to have the center open to the public sometime this summer, said Neil Williamson, the district’s health coordinator. He’s hoping to find a sponsor to help cover utility and staffing costs to make it more affordable to residents, Williamson said.

For now, though, the middle school students are putting the bicycles, stair machines and weights to good use.

“I couldn’t do a bench press before this and now I can,” said Payton Knoll on Wednesday as she worked out on the stair climbing machine. “I really like this and the fact that it helps us keep in shape. … It gives us a lot of options.”

Wednesday the main P.E. classes played a game in the gymnasium but students like Mikayla LaFontaine and Barbara Millward, who would rather work out individually, hit the fitness room.

“You can do what you want,” LaFontaine said.

“I love it,” added Millward. “And we don’t play the same game over and over.”

In the past, P.E. was geared more toward team sports at which roughly only 15 percent of the students excel, said teacher Bryan Keatley said. The new approach lets each student set their own fitness goals and then find the best way to reach them, he said.

“This is stuff they can do after they’re out of school,” Keatley said from the fitness room.

Mondays and Wednesdays students have health classes, Tuesdays and Thursdays they work out and Fridays they play some sort of team game.

The fitness room cost $60,000 for the equipment and $25,000 for the remodeling — all paid for with the grant, Williamson said. In addition students have heart monitors and other equipment to help gauge their fitness level. Each student must keep a chart of their exercises and their progress.

The schools also have Wii fitness interactive video games and can project workout videos up on large screens so everyone can see, Williamson said.

Williamson also plans an outdoor fitness circuit near the North County Recreation Complex and the high school. The stations will be spread along the Riverfront Trial and will allow people to incorporate some other workouts into their walks or runs, he said.