Construction of much of the huge project is expected to be completed later this semester
By: David Campbell
Princeton Regional Schools officials offered a first glimpse this week of the expansion now under way at Princeton High School.
In 2001, Princeton voters approved the $81.3 million district-wide school renovation and expansion project that is now in full swing at PHS. Students, teachers and staff at the four elementary schools and the John Witherspoon Middle School have been using their upgraded facilities for some time now.
At the high school, construction of new educational spaces including 12 new science labs with prep rooms and student project rooms and of a new gymnasium is expected to finish up this spring, and many new classrooms are expected to become occupied later in this semester.
Construction of the new auditorium is scheduled to be finished in July, with renovations of existing facilities expected to begin this spring and finish up sometime in spring 2007. Formal celebrations are planned for Oct. 13 and 14.
On Tuesday, district administrators and school board members gave a tour of the new PHS facilities, revealing how close the district is to realizing the fruits of several years of rigorous planning, implementation, and challenges and setbacks overcome. An end to the sights, sounds and sometimes the hassles of ongoing construction work apparently is within sight.
"I think it’s just sheer excitement," district Superintendent Judy Wilson said Tuesday as she stood in the space now taking shape to become PHS’s new gymnasium.
The tour Tuesday included first looks at the gym as well as the new auditorium and expanded lunchroom; some of the science labs; a rooftop greenhouse for horticulture; and a black-box theater.
"My hat is off to the planners," said William W. Lockwood Jr., special programming director at McCarter Theatre and a 1955 alumnus of the high school, who was also present Tuesday for the walk-through.
"If you were 16 or 17 years old at the time, it seemed like a big theater, a big stage," Mr. Lockwood said of PHS’s existing auditorium, which will eventually be reincarnated as the high school’s new library space.
He said his first musical at PHS was a production of "Carousel," in which he was in the choir. Walking through the black-box theater on Tuesday, he said such a professional-level performance and rehearsal space is unique in public schools.
"I’d like to sign up and go through four years again," he quipped.
School board member Charlotte Bialek said of the new performance space taking shape: "I’ve been looking at it so long in plans to see it actually happening is quite a thrill."
Meanwhile, the initial phase of the "Take A Seat" fundraising initiative recently launched by the Princeton Education Foundation to help finance the new auditorium has garnered contributions for 73 seats, and more are needed. Contributions to date have included the highest-price seats, as well as multiple-seat purchases. They have come from parents, alumni, students, organizations and staff, organizers said.
Seats in the performance space are going for contributions of $250, $500 and $1,000 per seat, with naming opportunities on the seats for every contribution. The new auditorium will have approximately 770 seats.
More information about the "Take A Seat" campaign along with donation forms are available on the foundation’s Web site, www.pefnj.org.