Sun, Nov 22 2009
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Published February 13, 2009 02:44 pm - 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. Guest columnist, Jacqueline Potter: New building ideal backdrop for learning 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. 
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