Montgomery High construction is officially under way
By: Steve Rauscher
MONTGOMERY Judging from the mounds of mud and construction equipment visible everywhere, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Montgomery High School came a bit late Thursday.
Work at the site actually began in late September, but a few weeks hardly matter in the course of the six years the planning and construction of the massive, state-of-the-art school will have taken when the project is completed in September 2004. Township voters passed a $70 million referendum in support of the project in 2000, with design work beginning in earnest in 1998.
More than 100 people attended the afternoon groundbreaking ceremony, including many township notables, teachers and students.
"At first people refuse to believe that a new thing can be done," district Superintendent Stuart Schnur told the audience, paraphrasing Francis Hodgson Burnett. "Then they begin to hope that it can be done. Then they see that it can be done. And then it is done, and the community wonders why it was not done before."
Built to accommodate the district’s swollen enrollment, which has practically doubled since 1995, the high school will house up to 2,000 students in 76 classrooms covering 406,323 square feet of space. The building will boast a cutting-edge technological infrastructure featuring a wireless computer network that will provide students, teachers and administrators a remote network and Internet access from any point on the school’s campus.
Other amenities include a 1,000-seat auditorium and what Dr. Schnur likes to refer to as a natatorium, or an indoor swimming pool.
Architect James Morton of MRM Architecture said designing the school presented some unique challenges. The land the district purchased for the project was the site of the former Lloyd McCorkle School for Boys at the corner of Skillman Road and Route 601. Project planners needed to evaluate the school’s existing facilities to determine which buildings, if any, would be suitable for renovation and inclusion in the new high school complex. The final design will make use of three renovated buildings.
"We made some compromises in the plan to accommodate what was there," Mr. Morton said. "But it has worked out well for the project."
The school’s design is centered around a two-story open area or commons, surrounded by the media center, cafeteria, auditorium and many of the school’s classrooms. The common area forms a circulation spine that helps minimize the distance students and faculty must travel and provides an area for socialization.
"Not only will this building be a place where children will be supported as they move to higher and higher levels of learning and accomplishment," Dr. Schnur said, "but it will serve as a focal point for the entire school community. … This edifice will be a model for what is right and what is good in our lives and in our future."
Most others involved were similarly sanguine about the future of the project toward which they have been laboring. Board of Education President Linda Romano praised fellow board members past and present for shepherding such a substantial undertaking through the many layers of bureaucracy and public scrutiny necessary before construction could begin.
The school district ranks among the best in the state, and that has, in part, fueled the district’s wild growth. Continued excellence in the face of such expansion comes at a price, however, which the public elected to pay by passing the 2000 referendum.
"The new high school represents a significant investment on the part of Montgomery Township," Ms. Romano said. "Our actions today ensure our significant strength in the future."