Heritage High School right on track for opening day
Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/rhtn/News/4116/
There were times when the project didn’t seem to have an end, architect Gary Jackson told the Rogers School Board as it toured the new Rogers Heritage High School. Now, he said, the end is in sight.
This week, movers will start bringing in office furniture and the floors of classrooms will be ready for cleaning, Jackson said. When school opens on August 18, the only part of Heritage that won’t be ready will be the auditorium. The auditorium had a separate time table and should be completed by October.
The completed school is 330, 000 square feet, and that includes about 100, 000 square feet that once Rogers High School. The tour group included both former students and teachers who agreed that it almost impossible to identify the older sections.
Even with new floors, ceiling and windows in the older classrooms, renovating them saved the district money, Jackson said. He compared the costs to districts now building brand new schools. The entire project will cost about $ 40 million. A smaller school planned in Siloam Springs will cost that district over 45 million, Jackson said.
The work began almost two years ago when the district’s sophomores moved into a new building on First Street. Students were still on campus this year in the old Southside building that housed the alternative high school program. That building will be demolished this summer and the alternative high school program will move to First Street.
Eventually both Heritage High School and Rogers High School will house ninth through 12 th grade. But for one year, seniors will all attend Rogers High School. The class of 2009 will all graduate from RHS where they spent their junior year. The class of 2010 will be divided beginning in August.
The administration will probably move into the building next week, business manager David Cauldwell said. The board has already approved a plan to out source custodians at the new school. They’ll begin work later this month.