New Tech at Huntington North High School is beginning to take shape.
Dana Wannemacher, a project architect with Barton, Coe and Vilamaa of Fort Wayne, presented some design options to the Huntington County Community School Corporation Board of Trustees on Monday night, March 8.
The location for the first year or two of the program is projected to be a 10-classroom block beside the cafeteria and the high school radio station, which is currently home to foreign languages and English classes.
Superintendent of Schools Tracey Shafer says the three options presented all fit into the four-year budget of the construction, which is about $870,000. The corporation said they had plans to spend $70,000 in the first year. Shafer also said he wanted the board to be presented with options.
The first option is comprised of using the existing materials in the current framework by removing three walls to create larger learning space of two large classrooms and a third area for instruction and office space for the teachers, for $70,000.
Wannemacher said for the first year, six of the 10 classrooms will be used and then as the school enrollment increases, the four rooms on the opposite side would be utilized for an additional $25,000. Shafer added that in the future of the program, six more classrooms would be sought after to use for a total of 16 classrooms for New Tech.
The second option uses existing materials for classroom framework but a hallway for the school will be U-shaped for $120,000.
The third uses new materials in the same U-shape. At this point, Wannemacher said the board would be looking at a larger first year expense.
“To do this with all new construction, and that’s something we know we’re going to have to do in this school someday because those wall panels aren’t going to last forever … We’re looking at about $225,000,” he said, explaining that he’s aware it is more than they wanted to spend in the first year, but it is less expensive than previous estimations of 10-classroom renovation projects.
“You can meet the intent of the program, spending as little as $70,000 the first year, but that won’t take care of some of the problems in the this space that we’ve been identifying and have talked about for two or three years,” Wannemacher added later, with examples of wall panels lighting. He said the board can go to either extreme of all new or all reused materials, or in the middle with both. But once they decide, he said they cannot shift plans, though.
Two additional aspects discussed were the hallway and the courtyard near the block.
“[The New Tech hallway] helps to identify it as a separate school within the high school and that’s pretty important to those folks, that they have their own identity. And that’s a whole, big notion of any school-within-a-school concept. It has been for several years,” Wannemacher explained.
The courtyard is being examined for additional educational space, with possible access directly from the classrooms. More space, the board was told, can be found in the U-shape corridor by allowing students room to study outside of the classroom.
Shafer and Board President Kevin Patrick discussed finances for the project. Shafer said the corporation received $570,000 in grants with $450,000 going to the New Tech program administrators, adding additional money will be needed for the renovations.
Board Secretary Rex Baxter questioned the relocation of the teachers currently in the block, and Shafer said the teachers would be shifted around as some go into New Tech to teach.
Wannemacher said the New Tech staff is ready to go ahead when the board decides upon a plan.
Given all the options, Patrick said, “doing anything outside of what we originally discussed would be hard for me to support.”
As for the time frame, Dave McKee, Assistant Superintendent for Business, said he wants to have a project approved by April and the bids out and accepted in May to have the necessary people notified and “ready to roll when school’s out.”
