Several Waco-area schools are getting upgrades in the form of renovations and additions. But the school that received the most drastic makeover is A.J. Moore Academy.

Little at A. J. Moore hasn’t been redone to better serve students and staff because of funds from the Waco Independent School District 2008 bond issue and money from an insurance settlement from a fire in 2009.

Principal Angela Reiher said she is excited to start the new school year in an almost completely renovated A.J. Moore Academy. The facility boasts a new career technology building, classrooms, offices and state-of-the-art science labs, as seen here.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

During the past school year, the A.J. Moore staff and nearly 700 students contended with portable classrooms, construction dust and makeshift offices. But they will start the 2010-11 school year with a nearly new school.

More than $4 million from Waco ISD’s $172.5 million bond issue in 2008 went to redoing much of A.J. Moore’s main building. New science labs were added and existing labs were renovated to meet state standards.

Other rooms were converted to math labs, while some classrooms were renovated to give them their own entrances.

A.J. Moore Academy, 500 N. University Parks Drive, was built in 1970. It originally had an open floor plan.

Its centrally located library opened onto the rest of the school and classrooms not confined individually by walls. Students had to walk through one room to get to another.

The administration area and offices were completely redone. The previous office area was like a maze, Principal Angela Reiher said, requiring people to go through one room to get to the next.

A.J. Moore operates on a career-academy concept. Students are asked to commit to areas, including engineering, and hospitality and tourism.

The campus suffered a blow in July 2009, when an accidental fire damaged the Career Technology building. No one was hurt, but the building had to be torn down and replaced.

The situation gave the school an opportunity to bring the facility into the 21st century.

“We lost everything,” Reiher said, including all the equipment used in the career and technology courses.

When A.J. Moore Academy underwent renovations last year, the library was configured to handle makeshift classrooms and school offices.
Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune-Herald

All the new classrooms are designed to cater to specific courses, including a serving area for the culinary arts program and a separate area for the health profession’s sample hospital room.

And plenty of outlets are available in the room devoted to rebuilding computers.

“The kids are going to go bananas when they see this,” Reiher said.

In another break with the past, all A.J. Moore students, except the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, will be under the same roof. Before, students had to trek outside to separate buildings for classes.

The new Career and Technology facility is connected by a closed-in hallway. With renovations completed in the main building, students won’t have to walk outside to the 18 portable classrooms that were used last year.

Reiher said having all classes under one roof will be more efficient and a time saver. She said students should be less tired, too, because they will not have to walk up and down hill outside four or five times to portable classes.

While the school gleams now, with lighter walls and shiny tiled floors. Reiher said some of the school’s original open concept remains.

Construction workers install new flooring as part of the school’s renovations.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

It’s in the core of the school, the open middle that looks into the canyon-like library, she said. Visitors to the school fall in love with the open library, she said.

“They just feel like everything flows around the whole school,” she said.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

757-6901

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