Dump trucks and bobcats are now leading the way through the foggy future of EHS. The building will be finished October of 2012 with five classrooms, one science lab, a welcoming center, bathroom facilities for the softball fields and one hundred additional parking spots.
“The construction is a part of a long range plan, and if you look at each time we build there’s a reason we build where we do because then the next phase it will add on in a manner that is consistent,” Mrs. Deborah Asher, associate principal, said. “So, when we build the six classrooms it’s going to move the front of the building out towards the bus lane a little further, so it’s actually going to make another main entry rather than going straight into our Commons.”
The fog is getting stronger as students are quickly finding that not all is what it seems around them.
“I don’t really know at all what is happening with the construction,” Bernard Webb (9) said. “I don’t even know who would know.”
In 2010, voters approved Proposition 5, a $55 million bond issue, April 6, the bond money was to be used for safety measures and infrastructure, maintenance of current facilities, additions for classrooms, renovations for instructional areas and technology infrastructure, according to the Rockwood website. The construction will continue through the beginning of next year to October 2012.
Clearing the fog, administrators are aware of the changes and see the long term effects.
“There are actually some other facilities that are going to be covered,” Mrs. Asher said. “I know one will be bathrooms at the baseball and softball fields. That’s going to be worked on this summer. The last two major things would be the construction of the bathrooms.”
As the construction begins to take shape, some of the faculty is getting more and more excited for the new additions.
“I’m excited to have a new little area,” Mrs. Shirley Bryan, receptionist, said. “I have been sitting in here doing this for 23 years, but I am going to miss the people in the office. I am afraid I won’t see them, and I like to see the people coming and going, but it’s just something new, and I’ll get used to it.”
The fog is beginning to settle, as student most are thinking about the impending parking spaces and the smaller class sizes in the future.
“I think it is very beneficial that we are getting six new classrooms,” Caitlin Bolinger (10) said. “It will also be very efficient because there will be more classrooms which means less students in other classes. The parking will also really help the future juniors, like me, because then we will have more chances to get parking spots.”
With excitement and construction interrupting the everyday life of EHS, some staff members are finding the construction to be a positive yet confusing change.
“They change the building so much that I get lost every time I go past the commons,” Mrs. Elizabeth Demarest, science teacher, said. “But what the construction workers have done is really nice with all the new classrooms. It’s all really, really nice.”
With the year coming to a close and the construction still an issue, the students of EHS continue to strive for excellence through this foggy haze of construction. Even though the construction may prove to be frustrating, in the long run it may prove to be a positive change for the school.
