NOVEMBER 2008
Community Paper

EDGEWATER HIGH SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION – STATUS UPDATE
by: Kathleen Maloney Skambis

Good news: The process of reconstructing Edgewater High School is well underway. OCPS now owns the additional land it needs. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2009 and be completed in the summer of 2011.

More good news: The daily lives of Edgewater High School students will be affected very little during the construction. Most of the construction will take place on the newly acquired land, on which a shopping center and closed mobile home park are now located.

The details: A Construction Advisory Team (CAT) consisting of five community members, Edgewater High School personnel, OCPS facilities staff, and the architects from C.T. Hsu and Associates, has been meeting monthly for several months. The CAT has reviewed plans and elevations that have now been approved by OCPS. Preliminary concepts were presented to the community at a meeting on July 9, 2008. Updated plans will be presented at a joint meeting (open to the public) of the Edgewater High School PTSA and School Advisory Council on November 11, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the Edgewater Auditorium. Come, listen, ask questions, and provide your input.

After site work is completed on the new property, construction will begin there. Tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade classrooms, a gym, auditorium, media center, cafeteria, administration building, and tennis and hard courts will all be built immediately north of the stadium, which will remain in its current location. A new parking lot will be built north of the new buildings. All of that construction will be fenced off from the existing campus, which will continue to function uninterrupted.

Once the new buildings are completed and furnished, construction will begin on the current campus. The current media center and the business and science buildings will be completely renovated to become a ninth grade academy. The athletic fields and associated facilities will be renovated, including installation of a track around the football field. A covered walkway will be built between the ninth grade academy and the main campus. The existing 100, 200, and 300 buildings, the cafeteria, and the auditorium will eventually be demolished, and a new parking lot will be built.

The construction phasing plans and schedule are not yet finalized. However, the move into the new buildings will occur during a school break, hopefully in the summer of 2010. While the ninth grade academy buildings are being renovated, either the new buildings will temporarily house the entire school, including ninth grade, or the ninth grade will be housed on the existing campus in buildings not scheduled for renovation. In any case, students will never be attending school in the middle of a construction zone and will experience very little relocation disruption. All construction will be completed and the ninth grade academy will be operational by the start of the 2011-2012 school year.
Traffic in College Park and on the campus should be improved once the new campus is open. The buses will enter and exit the campus from Maury Road, and will use a dedicated bus loop on the campus. Plans call for school staff and visitors to enter the campus at Par Street, and for construction of a left-turn lane on northbound Edgewater Drive at that intersection. Students will enter the campus at a new traffic light on Edgewater Drive via a new driveway to be located between the existing band building and administration building.

Leadership Needed: The current campus’s music and administration buildings will not be demolished, but will not be part of the new campus. The other parts of the current campus that front on Edgewater Drive will also not be a part of the new campus, but will continue to be owned by OCPS, at least for now. OCPS has said it has no plans yet for how to use that property. There are opportunities to work with OCPS to develop it into a use compatible with, and maybe even used by, the high school and other neighborhood schools. Would the highest and best use be a library? a YMCA? an OCPS administration building? What does the community want? The possibilities for development of that property with OCPS are almost limitless. Upon completion of the new campus, the group of leaders who fought for the school’s renovation are retiring. New leaders are needed. This is a great opportunity for the community and a new generation of leaders to envision and achieve a fabulous outcome.
Conclusion: By the start of the 2011-2012 school year, Edgewater High School’s beautiful new campus will be open. In the meantime, Edgewater High School students will continue their education uninterrupted by construction, but energized by a bright future for Eagle traditions.