Thursday, June 26, 2008
By Wendy Gragg
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A new University High School campus is already beginning to take shape, on paper at least, with a performing arts center, a spacious courtyard in the back of the school and a grand, tall entrance in the front.
Every class, course and curriculum has been planned. There’s just one detail left: where to put the school.
The Waco Independent School District board of trustees will meet tonight to consider approving the schematic design for a new University High School. Meanwhile, the district is considering five parcels of land in South Waco for the new campus.
District officials aren’t letting the new school’s lack of an address get in the way of celebrating the completion of the school’s design, though.
“To see it coming to life a little bit, it’s just exciting,” said Sheryl Davis, WISD assistant superintendent for business and support services.
The new $70 million University High School is courtesy of taxpayers, who gave the thumbs up to a $172.5 million bond issue in May. The bond covers the rebuilding and consolidation of elementary schools, as well as districtwide renovations. But the lead project in the package is the high school.
University High principal Nolan Correa said he loves the new school’s entire layout, but he’s especially fond of the much larger, centrally located library.
“The library is the heart of the school,” he said, adding that he hopes that making it a focal point in the school will encourage his students to read, both for enjoyment and success.
The library isn’t the only thing that’s bigger in the new school. The cafeteria is three times the size of the current one. There is also an 850-seat performing arts center, which puts to shame the tiny cafeteria stage University students use today.
The current facility’s age and disrepair, as well as lobbying by community members and school boosters, earned University High a place on the bond project roster. Some parts of the school, which consists of several buildings, date back to the late 1940s. Because the school is so segmented, with more than 80 building entrances, security is a nightmare, Correa said. There are too few lockers and bathrooms in the main building and the library and cafeteria are too small for the 1,200 students.
Correa said other areas are simply inadequate, including antiquated home economics rooms. The school also lacks an auditorium for theater productions and a regulation track. Other parts of the school have begun to fall down around students’ ears, such as the practice gym, which began raining ceiling tiles last year.
One thing is certain about the new location: It won’t be where the old school stands. The existing campus is 20-plus acres, which is inadequate for a high school, Correa said. The smallest of the five locations being considered for the new campus is 70 acres, he said.
Davis said the design was created with the most problematic of the five locations in mind, so it will fit on any of them.
Gina Torres, the mother of a University High student and PTA president, said there’s a buzz in the community about the new school. She was at University High on Wednesday, and summer school students grilled her about their future campus.
“I had several kids come up to me and ask, ‘Ms., my mom was wondering where the new school is going to be,’ ” she said. Torres said she thinks the community is ready to see some action on the project.
Real estate agent Jon Spelman said the district should have little trouble finding 70 acres on which to build a new University High School in South Waco. He said that area is teeming with sites that could be developed.
“If you had to find 70 acres in the Waco High area, you’d be up a tree,” Spelman said.
Spelman said he already has sent the district three sites to consider, including the 142-acre tract that stretches along Interstate 35 from the Harley-Davidson dealership at Interstate 35 and New Road to the Best Buy electronics store in Central Texas Marketplace.
The owner probably would want to keep the I-35 frontage for retail development, Spelman said, but might be willing to part with land back from the interstate for a new school. This site is a short walk from the Waco ISD Stadium on New Road.
As for the site University High will be leaving at I-35 and South Valley Mills Drive, it is dripping with development potential, Spelman said.
“It has a lot of promise,” Spelman said. “People have toyed with the idea of doing something with that property for 20 years.”
Real estate agent Jim Peevey also said the land next to Flying J appears ideal for consideration. “You can see WISD Stadium from there,” he said.
Davis said the district hopes to have settled on a site by the end of summer.
Board members will also get a glimpse tonight at the schematics for a new elementary school in East Waco. The district has not settled on a site for this school, either, but Davis said it needs to by the end of the summer.
Also tonight, trustees are to consider another extension in the sale of old Waco High building at Ninth Street and Jefferson Avenue. WISD received an $180,000 down payment on the building Wednesday. Davis said if the sale does not go through in one month, the developers forfeit the $180,000 and walk away from the purchase, which would have netted the school district $900,000.
The board meets at 5:30 tonight at the WISD Conference Center, 115 S. Fifth St.
Mike Copeland contributed to this article.
wgragg@wacotrib.com
757-6901
