By Cathy Spauldng
CHECOTAH — School officials say a new high school could help ease classroom overcrowding and help the school meet current technological and student needs.
The district is seeking voter approval of a $15.4 million bond issue to build a new 120,467-square foot high school. The new facility, to be located west of the football stadium facing Interstate 40, would feature approximately 24 classrooms, a media center, cafeteria, vocational agriculture facility, administration offices and an event center that would includes a gym and an auditorium.
The bond issue would raise the district’s ad valorem tax rate by 19.77 percent. A person paying $300 in taxes would pay an additional $59.31, said Checotah School Superintendent Mark Calavan.
“Right now, we have crowded classrooms and inadequate room for technology and special education,” Calavan said.
The high school has an enrollment of about 460 students.
Calavan said five portable classrooms are located in “lean-to” storage facilities “that were never intended to be classrooms.”
High school government teacher Lane Lawrence recalled teaching in one classroom where students had to overflow into an adjacent office or into an entryway used as a hospitality room for home basketball games.
“We plan to move the classrooms out of the portables,” Calavan said.
The new high school would be built around a courtyard and would feature four classrooms for English, four math, four history, three science with one lab, two vocational business classrooms, two special education, one health and one foreign language. There also would be classrooms for family and career education, art and in-school suspension.
The current high school was built in 1940, with an east wing added in 1962 and four classrooms added in 1964. The Truman Dixon field house was built in 1965, fine arts building in 1970 and a vocational building in 1977.
Calavan said the middle school, located in a stone building that dates to 1936, would expand into the high school. Also, a library and art room located in a 72-year-old gym facility could move into newer spaces, he said. The gym would be used strictly for physical education classes.
High school librarian Larry Rigney said more and more students are using the media center.
“Last year, we had 30,000 student visits, and this year, we’ll have 20,000 student visits by Christmas,” Rigney said. He said the computer lab gets especially busy around test time.
The new high school’s event center would double as a basketball field house and auditorium, with a stage on one side of the gym. A band room would be built on a second floor. Calavan said the event center would be similar to the gym at Fort Gibson High School.
Checotah’s current high school auditorium holds 500 people.
“We cannot actually hold the whole student body, plus the staff,” Calavan said.
Classrooms surrounding the event center also would be used as tornado shelter “safe rooms,” Calavan said.
A separate vo-ag facility would feature a show area storage room and a warehouse/workshop.
Calavan said the total size of the high school, including the vo-ag facility, would be 120,467 square feet. Without the vo-ag facility, the building would be about 110,000 square feet, he said.
Calavan said he believes the time is right to build the new high school because building costs such as labor and materials are lower. He said he also wants to take advantage of a low interest rate.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.
