Schools

Board of Education Approves Schematic for High School Renovations

Renovations will include new auxiliary gym, media center and classroom wing

The Board of Education has given its approval to final sketches of renovations to Beachwood High School.

The renovations, funded mainly by a levy voters approved last spring, will cost approximately $35.6 million. Federal stimulus money will pay a $5.6 million share of the cost.

Renovations are expected to begin in June 2011 and end in time for the start of the 2013 school year.

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 School staff and administrators previously submitted what district spokesperson Doug Levin called "wish lists" for the renovations. After mapping these options, the design team chose the features that fit within the $35.6 million budget.

The Board of Education approved this final schematic at their Dec. 16 meeting.

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Changes to the school include a new north classroom wing with restricted access from the building's swimming pool, the addition of an auxiliary gym connected to the existing south gym, and the renovation of the north gym's space into administrative offices and a multipurpose room.

All of the school's band and choir space will be clustered around the auditorium, giving students easier access to their instruments and to the stage.

The dining room will be renovated to ease lunch-line traffic and the north classroom wing will become a one-story structure instead of two, and will include new language labs.

Because the new wing will be built before the old wing is torn down, officials said, no classroom space will be taken away during renovations. The school will have approximately 21,000 more square feet of classroom space after the project is completed.

For more images and information about the building project, visit the district's Web site.


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