PHOTOS: A Look At The New Waterford High

Tuesday, the School Building Committee held a tour of the The new addition of the school will be 126,000 square feet, which will be coupled with 106,000 square feet of the existing school to bring the total to 232,000 square feet, according to Superintendent Jerome Belair.

The renovation is set to open in February of 2013. Some highlights of the building:

-As many of you know, the pool and the fieldhouse are finished. The auditorium will be redone this summer, with new carpeting put down, a new catwalk will be installed and new rigging above the stage will be installed, among other work. Those three rooms will be the primary three still left from the existing building as the rest of the old building will be torn down.

-The cafeteria is supposed to reflect a “Panera Bread” feel, according to project architect Greg Smolley of JCJ Architecture. There will be booths like a restaurant and a serpentine counter that runs like an S down the middle of the café with stools for students to eat.

-The media center and be right at the front entrance. It will be open to the community as well, and try to emulate more of a “college-feel,” according to Belair.

-The entire school will be wireless. Most of the money spent on technology on the building will go to infrastructure of a wireless network, according to Belair.

-Despite the size, each teacher will not have his or her own room. The reason was the district’s push to have as much space for students as possible, Smolley said. There are three large teacher lounges, which hold 22 teachers apiece, that will have a spot for each teacher. Teachers will also be able to go on the Internet and have data stored at their spot.

-The building will be air conditioned and heated using geothermal heating, following in the footsteps of the three elementary schools. Once construction is complete, the only school that will still use oil is Clark Lane Middle School.

-The building is three stories tall. The roof is on top of those three stories, and that space will not be used except for storage.

-The multi-use artificial turf field has been completed. All the sports fields will be irrigated.

-JCJ Architecture designed the building, and O & G Industries has been employed as the project manager of the building.

-The project is expected to come $1.2 million under its $68 million budget, although that is subject to change.