District administration and the WSSD School Board are in preliminary discussions on plans to renovate the high school.
Proposed renovations range from extra parking to the removal of the trailers, to the addition of new gym and athletic spaces.
The architectural firm Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates was approved to conduct a utilization study for the high school, according to a presentation at the June 2023 Facilities and Finance Committee meeting.
At that June meeting, the firm shared proposed blueprints and initial renderings for renovations.
Principal Dr. Greg Hilden explained that the different renovations were included in three separate tiered cost options, each one carrying more renovations– and cost.
“There’s tiered options, so each option has a different level of renovations. Some of the options include extras, and some things are the same no matter what the option is,” Hilden said.
Three possible cost tiers are option A at $31.7 million, option B at $45.1 million, and option C at $58.7 million.
The renovations included increased parking access, the addition of an auxiliary gym, renovations to the library, team locker rooms, special education and life skills rooms, and the removal of the modular classrooms.
Hilden highlighted the importance of removing the modular classrooms.
“Removing the modular classrooms, which were meant to be a temporary solution and have been there for over 20 years, that’s a part of every option,” he said.
At the June 2023 meeting, Superintendent Dr. Wagner Marseille said that the original design of the high school dates back to 1968, with modifications in 1999, modular classrooms added in 2004, and entrance upgrades in 2021.
Marseille stated that there are still things inside the building that date back to that original 1968 design.
“Maybe some of those things are good, and we’ve kept and maintained some of those items,” he said to the Facilities and Finance Committee. “But every product does have a shelf life, even after careful use and proper maintenance. With that said, there’s a lot of things that haven’t been properly maintained.”
When it comes down to choosing the right cost option, Hilden noted that the decision required collaboration and discussion among administrative members.
“I think that decision about what tier to pick needs to be a collaborative conversation with a variety of stakeholders,” he said. “There’s a lot of different people who have lots of different interests invested in this, and I don’t think one person or one group should be the sole decision maker.”
There is not yet a clear timeline for the proposed renovations.
“These types of projects usually take multiple years, and while these conversations have been going on for a while, nothing is set in stone,” Hilden said.
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(Staff)We asked a few current students where they would start with renovations to the high school.
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Henry Hewitt '27
“I would fix the fields below the gym. Like actually cutting the grass and having an actual field. Not turf, I don’t like turf. But just have an actual field.”
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Nicky Tapino '24
“I would renovate the library because if we look at a place like the middle school, you realize how nice it looks... I know it won’t be as big. But I do feel like a renovation is greatly needed for the library.”
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Markus Johnson '27
“The trailers. Make them part of the actual building, since they were supposed to be temporary, and they’ve kind of been permanent.”
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Zeb Smithey '27
“I would take [the cafeteria] and put in a Chick-fil-A, a Wawa, and something healthy.”
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Sam Fritz '24
“Probably the trailers because they’re temporary classrooms and we’ve had them for a long time. And then they’ve started to do it with the gymnasium. But they need to put more signage up, I think it’s hard for people from other schools to know where to go if they’re trying to go to the pool or somewhere else in the school."
