Grade-Schoolers Get Close Look At Future Home
Students from Chester Elementary and Horizon Junior High walked down the street from their own schools to the empty field at 32nd and Pines. Above the roar of heavy equipment moving earth, Chester Principal Linda Uphus said, “Boys and girls, we are making history today.”
The $30 million construction of the new University High School is under way. Gathered at the 32nd and Pines construction site Monday morning, hours before the official ground-breaking, the students made the most of their chance to learn about their future high school.
They fired question after question at Erik Ohlund, U-Hi principal.
In particular, they were eager to know about the sports facilities at the new schools.
Are there going to be stadium lights? Yes, there will.
Gym seating? The main gym will have 2,200 seats.
Will there be a pool? No, the school district didn’t want to compete with the new Valley YMCA, Ohlund said.
Principal Erik Ohlund pointed past the graders at work on the site, explaining just where the football field, soccer field and 10 tennis courts will be.
Other questions popped up, too.
Will there be a seminary? Ohlund explained that seminaries are not operated by public schools.
What about handicapped access in the two-story building? There will be elevators.
“When will it be done?”
The school and its counterpart, the new Central Valley High School, are scheduled to open in September 2002. Voters in 1996 passed $78 million in bonds for the two new schools.
“How big will the gym be?”
The main gym will be about 13,000 square feet - or to put it in perspective, the gym will be about a third the size of Chester Elementary.
Ohlund also told students that the construction site will be a dangerous place, and asked them to watch the progress on the school from a safe distance.
The construction site will be fenced.
This sidebar appeared with story: MORE SATURDAY
For a closer look at the two new high schools the Central Valley School District is building, see Saturday’s Valley Voice.