West Canaan
Superintendent Patrick Andrew said construction workers and faculty are “cleaning up from the dust this week,” assembling shelves, throwing away old furniture and painting before students arrive next week. He said the project is on schedule and will be ready in time for classes to begin.
Most of the improvements to the old 60,000-square-foot high school building, which opened in 1963, were completed last spring and summer, and it held students last school year while work on the expansion took place. The new 35,000 square feet of space includes an auditorium, media center and library, as well as a new parking lot, among other amenities.
Rising junior Harrison Hinman has eagerly awaited a new high school for years. Like many of his peers, he celebrated a 2014 vote that paved the way for renovations at the school.
Hinman recalls seeing crews daily throughout last school year. He remembers sitting in class and thinking to himself “pretty soon, I’ll be able to walk through those doors.”
Hinman, a radio host at 99 Rock in Hanover, was at Mascoma on Wednesday.
He is working to begin a student radio program at Mascoma, and spent a portion of the day setting up the future studios, part of the creative learning the modernized high school intends to foster.
“I kind of broke down in tears when I walked into the auditorium because it’s something I’ve been waiting for for so long,” Hinman said on Wednesday. “It doesn’t feel like Mascoma, but it is Mascoma and I’m very proud to go here.”
Although construction is on track, the project itself took years to approve. School district officials brought it before Mascoma voters four times in six years before a bond vote finally passed, with 63 percent support, in 2014.
A radio studio isn’t the only new addition to the school. When the doors open on Tuesday, it will boast an updated cafeteria, classrooms and gymnasium, along with a new weight room, mini gym, art space and food pantry.
Andrew said the roughly 500-seat auditorium is the “crown jewel of the renovation.” It not only has a high-tech booth for lights and music, but a larger backstage space, changing rooms, its own loading dock and an adjoining hallway that can glow red during performances to prevent light from leaking on-stage.
“I’m going from a ’67 Chevy to a Ferrari,” said David Wilson, who heads the high school’s performing arts department.
Before the renovation, all performances were held in the gym. Since it was designed for athletics, sound would bounce of the walls and echo easily, Wilson said, which made band concerts difficult.
“We were jury-rigging sound systems and lighting systems to make it work for the space,” he said. “I was constantly getting complaints of ‘I can’t hear.’ ”
“It was probably, on a scale of one to 10, a two,” Wilson said of the gym. “But we made it work the best way that we possibly could.”
Now, he’s faced with the opposite situation: high-quality technology that he’s still unfamiliar with. A technician was brought in on Wednesday to help Wilson get his bearings on the sound and lighting boards, and he said it still will take time to get the full hang of things.
“I hope the community knows that for the first year things are going to be a little rough as we try to learn the Ferrari without crashing it into the wall,” he said.
Wilson’s new classroom also was upgraded with more space and storage. The acoustics of the space are so good that he intends to set up new recording technology so students can listen back to rehearsals.
There’s also new space to help students when they’re not in school. The new food pantry will allow students to take home needed goods over the weekends and breaks.
“This is here so that food scarcity is not something our kids are worrying about,” Andrew said.
The pantry will be run by the Friends of Mascoma Foundation, a nonprofit that aids the district and operates two other panties in the region.
Bob Cusick, a member of the School Board and the nonprofit group, said there also are plans to carry other items, and the pantry likely will prepare backpacks that can easily be grabbed and returned the next school day.
“It’s as simple as toiletries,” he said. “Kids need deodorant, feminine products, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.”
In other parts of the building, instructors boasted about the additional space and brighter lighting. Both are a common theme in much of the renovated space.
Almost every new room had large windows that drew in sunlight, and teachers moving into their classrooms were moving into much larger spaces.
“The kids have been walking in and going ‘wow,’ ” school nurse Stephanie Pluhar said. Her new office has three beds, a handicap bathroom and more storage near the building’s lobby.
“This is really amazing. They’ve done a really great job,” she said.
Ally Tessier, a biology teacher, said her lab now will include more benches and a demonstration table that looks out over the classroom.
She said her additional space doesn’t just provide more elbow room, but also separate spheres where students can learn and experiment.
“I’m very excited because I think it will provide a greater opportunity for students to learn,” she said while unpacking on Wednesday.
The newly designed art room also takes learning into account, although not in a traditional sense, Andrew said. There’s a new kiln room, pottery wheels and windows that can be remotely shaded in a room that is triple the size of previous art classrooms.
“This (design) is based on the premise that kids doing real things, real creative things, is a real gain,” he said. “We didn’t need to add classrooms to do another PowerPoint presentation or that kind of thing. We needed to add space for creativity.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.