Guest columnist, Jacqueline Potter: New building ideal backdrop for learning

Columns

Discussion

February 13, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Feb 13, 2009, 01:44 PM CST

Light. Height. Pleasing colors. Airy, spacious interiors, each designed for a specific use, allowing form to follow function. Inspired high-school planning and state-of-the-art technology throughout.

These were my first impressions of the new Carthage High School, still under construction at 2600 South River St., as I toured the building earlier this month with 45 members and guests of the Carthage Kiwanis Club.

Assistant Superintendent Mark Baker, who is also a member, led us on the tour, answered our questions and told us all about the new school, one of the largest in Southwest Missouri, designed for up to 1,500 students.

See the building for yourself later in March when the CHS Student Council will be conducting tours for the general public at the ribbon cutting and grand opening slated for 2 to 4 p.m., March 29.

My husband had parked our car near the impressive main entrance. We made our way along the wide walkway, feeling dwarfed by two pairs of columns and extremely tall entrance doors before us. In large, vivid, blue letters directly above them was the name CARTHAGE HIGH SCHOOL.

We stepped into a vast high-ceilinged room called the Commons, where we ate a sack lunch at round tables and heard Kiwanis Club President Dale Looney make a few remarks and introduce Dr. Baker. I believe the commons will be used for many purposes and serve as a gathering place where students can meet and make friends, as well as eat together. During four different lunch periods, up to 550 students at a time will be selecting their meals in the adjacent cafeteria and eating at round tables here. Some will choose to eat breakfast in the commons also. The kitchen is large and well-equipped.

Families and friends watching Carthage High students play sports should be far more comfortable than before in either of two back-to-back gyms, each deep blue and off-white with a big Tiger logo on the floor. The home team side in each gym has new chair-back seats, some fixed and some that fold up. The main gym seats a few less than 2,100, while the auxiliary gym seats about 550.

Pale yellow and cream makes the big band room seem cheery and bright. Its walls are sound insulated. Choral groups, Sweet Sounds and Show Choir have a generous space and the perfect neutral setting to see how they look and how they move in a mirror that covers one complete wall.

Fine arts boasts a darkroom and separate rooms for the computer side of art and the messier sides of art (my favorite), such as charcoal, pastels, painting, sculpture and pottery.

Though the building has two elevators, we climbed a long flight of stairs to the second floor. Every classroom is designed for a specific subject, is color coded, has its own sound system, an overhead projector, white boards and interactive white boards, a computer, and receptacles for others. What impressed me most upstairs were the huge media center and the seven well-equipped science labs, each built for biology, physics or chemistry. I longed to run a few exciting new experiments in that chemistry lab or lose myself reading, researching and writing in the beautiful media center with its library, 134 computers, computer lab and listening room.

Most amazing is the complete computerized automation of security, access, locks, light control, fire alarms and HVAC, with scanning of replaceable identity badges and cards for building, door and room access. Safety for all is enhanced by many hidden video cameras throughout the new closed campus school.

Joyce Rogler, who toured the school when I did and has a grandson in the first graduating class this May, told me over dinner later, “It’s a gorgeous building. I think our grandchildren will love it.”

The Carthage R-9 School Board and administrators have created the environment and tools for open-minded, willing students to develop their talents and skills, study and launch themselves into higher education and careers. The new CHS is only the first of future developments planned for the campus.

It’s Step 1 in Carthage R-9’s bold and far-seeing list of long-range solutions.

Jacqueline Potter is the author of several books and lives in Carthage.

Text Only

Columns

Federal stimulus money allows Cherokee County to buy foreclosed houses COLUMBUS, Kan. — A grant through the federal stimulus program will allow the Cherokee County Commission to buy three foreclosed houses from a county bank.

Nancy Lamb, deputy emergency management director for the county, provided information Monday about that grant and other grants on which she has been working.
March 9, 2010
Guest column, Allen Shirley: Copy a winning example Last October, I published a column in The Joplin Globe documenting three failed attempts involving the states of Maine, Massachusetts and Tennessee and their efforts to implement “Obamacare” in their states.
January 11, 2010
Anson burlingame, guest columnist: Living within our means “Mainly, we are going to have to live within our means and be very careful.”

That is the most resounding sound bite I have heard from a politician in a long time. If only that sentiment can grow and resonate, politically, to turn the tide of incessant and extraordinarily dangerous growth beyond our means in government.
January 11, 2010
Jim Stone, guest columnist: Paranoia shouldn’t impede freedom The afternoon of Dec. 30 brought news that eight American CIA agents and four Canadian soldiers at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan had been killed by a suicide bomber.
January 9, 2010
Dan Ray, guest columnist: Bills can still be terminated We still have an opportunity to terminate the health care bills that have been passed in the Senate and the House.
January 9, 2010
Dave Woods: Global warming fires up debate on Adams doesn’t believe in global warming.

I have to say, when it’s 3 degrees below zero outside in Joplin and we’re headed for our third week without a thaw, global warming theory is a tough concept to wrap my head around.
January 9, 2010
Jack Kaminsky, guest columnist: Remembering a ‘classic’ Last week Editor Carol Stark asked me to write something about my dad and the Kaminsky Classic, the annual Joplin High School basketball tournament which ended on Saturday.

Even as I started writing, I began crying, and have had tears in my eyes all day.
January 9, 2010
Carol Stark: We all need someone’s hand to hold I was always a nervous little kid and while others my age went through life without a care, I held back, imagining that the worst was about to happen.
January 2, 2010
Dave Woods: Harsh note sounds over parade trip By the time you read this column, the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., will only be a memory.
January 2, 2010
Bob Steere, guest columnist: Still looking for some answers Don Ray’s frustration in obtaining answers from his leaders in Congress (Globe, Dec. 22) is certainly shared by this letter sender.
January 2, 2010
More Columns Headlines

City wants to buy weather radios for those without

Columns

Search Results

Discussion

Guest columnist, Jacqueline Potter: New building ideal backdrop for learning

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

Site Map

Contact Us