TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pasco News

Needed Classroom Space Coming To Ridgewood

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST NEWS

Work has begun on a two-story, eight-classroom addition at Ridgewood High School, in New Port Richey. Expected to be completed in early 2009, the addition will increase the school's capacity by 200 students.

ADVERTISEMENT

By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: July 9, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY -- One of the more interesting aspects of the first day of a school year is seeing the changes in classmates over the summer: Who's got a new look; who filled out or slimmed down; who had a growth spurt.

When students return to Ridgewood High School in the fall, they will find the school in the midst of a growth spurt of its own – a two-story, $2.5 million expansion.

Construction workers are laying down the footprint for the eight-room addition, a permanent structure detached from the main school building and located between the school's gym and baseball field. The additional classrooms will raise the school's capacity by 200 students.

"Ridgewood is bursting at the seams," said William Hemphill, project coordinator for Pasco County School District Construction Services and Code Compliance Department.

It's a familiar situation at Ridgewood, a school that's existence and history reflects the growth in west Pasco County.

Located at 7650 Orchid Lake Road, south of Ridge Road, Ridgewood opened in 1978 as a junior high school. From the beginning School District officials were planning to turn Ridgewood into what at the time would be West Pasco's third high school.

That transition began in 1983 with the addition of a high school freshman class. When that class graduated in 1986, the transition was complete.

During the transition from a junior high to a high school student population, the school itself was modified to a more high school-like facility with the addition of a gym at the back of the main building, a stadium built by the football field, a weight room and tennis courts.

The population growth that prompted Ridgewood's construction in the first place has never stopped, necessitating frequent additions over the years, mostly in the form of portable classrooms.

"I came in '87 and we probably had four or five portables," Principal Randy Koenigsfeld said.

Today the school has 30 portables located east, west and south of the main building. Most are freestanding, cabin-like structures positioned in clusters. There is also a pair of four-classroom freestanding units.

For identification purposes, the portable classrooms are designated with "E," "W" or "S" to indicate which direction they are positioned on the campus in relation to the main building.

"This school was built for 1,300 junior high school students; we're up to 2,000," Koenigsfeld said. "If we can manage the flow of students in and out of the building, it just makes it that much more convenient."

That's Assistant Principal Shawn Hohenthaner's summer project, figuring out the master schedule for the entire school. It's a job she equates to putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

"At least 10,000 pieces," Hohenthaner said, and it's a puzzle that needs to be reworked every year.

Changes in curriculum styles help keep down campus congestion between classes, as students and teachers now spend much of their days clustered together in "teams."

"That's kind of the way schools are going nowadays," Koenigsfeld said. "They've gotten away from the centralized departments."

Instead, he explained, you might have a group of students that all have the same English, math, science and social studies teachers, all located near one another. This style is beneficial because the teachers can integrate their respective lessons, especially with specialized programs like career academies.

School officials expect the new building will be used along those lines, with students and teachers spending much of their day in that building. To accommodate that strategy, two of the units will be science classrooms. "We specifically asked for a couple of science rooms," Koenigsfeld said. "We have teachers floating from room to room who need science labs."

The portable classrooms are fine for most subjects, Koenigsfeld said, but science classes need lab tables and demonstration areas. And as a permanent structure, he added, they have the luxury of wiring all the classrooms to accommodate the latest technology.

"We can go in there and put projectors in the ceilings and it will be wired for sound, so it won't have to be retrofitted like in the original building," Koenigsfeld said.

The only downside is the annex probably won't be ready for use until February or March, roughly two-thirds of the way through the 2009-09 school year. But it will be a welcome addition, Koenigsfeld said.

Between it and the addition of a high school planned for the Hudson area in two years, Ridgewood may even be able to shed a few of its portables and have some open spaces again.

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT