For the past six months, a planning committee consisting of staff, students, administrators and community members has been meeting to guide the renovation of St. Johns High School. The 27-member planning team has dedicated hundreds of hours to assessing proposed designs, keeping plans within budget and providing overall guidance to project.
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In May 2010, voters approved the sale of bonds to fund a significant renovation to the high school and improvements to the middle school and elementary buildings.
The entire project will take approximately three years to complete.
In consultation with architectural firm Kingscott and the Clark Construction Company, the planning team has selected a preferred design that maintains a significant portion of the current facility while creating an addition that brings the total square footage of the high school to approximately 300,000 square feet.
Highlights of the preferred design include:
• More than 12,000 square feet dedicated to science instruction.
• The creation of a music performance area that provides dedicated space for band, orchestra and choir.
• Removal of all temporary classrooms (commonly known as portables).
• The addition of 300 hundred parking spaces to serve the high school, performance areas and athletic facilities.
• Elimination of the “pods” in favor of an academic wing.
• Expanded corridors for ease of student movement.
• Expanded kitchen and cafeteria facilities that will allow for two scheduled lunches rather than three.
“I can’t say enough about the planning team members,” said principal Mark Palmer. “They have been a dedicated group looking to effectively renovate the high school for twenty-first century learning and designing a building our community can be proud of for many years to come.”
Palmer also noted that every inch of the current building will be renovated with the exception of the floor in the gymnasium and portions of the extremely durable terrazo floors in certain parts of the building.
Most importantly, however, the preferred design works to create an extremely safe learning environment for students, he said.
It is anticipated that construction on the addition to the high school will begin in the early fall of 2011.