A WORKER PAINTS finishing touches along a border around a giant word “WOODLAND” on the corrugated steel backing of the seating at the new Beaver Stadium at Woodland High School.
A BRAND NEW GYMNASIUM higher ceilings and increased seating capacity at the new Woodland High School.
STATE OF THE ART football and soccer facilities include high-tech lighting systems, artificial turf, and double the capacity of the stadium at the former Woodland High School. The new stadium has room for about 1,600 people.
A FULLY FUNCTIONAL KITCHEN classroom with professional appliances and nearby access to the school’s commercial grade kitchen facilities will allow instructors to teach high-level cooking courses at the new Woodland High School.
WOODLAND – Woodland School District officials will unveil the district’s new high school in a public celebration later this month, but school officials allowed reporters into the building recently for a special tour, revealing what a big change the new facility will be for both students and the community.
“The design philosophy from the get-go was we wanted a facility that was going to have a long life that was very cost-effective,” Woodland Public Schools Superintendent Michael Green said Friday during the tour.
That philosophy required simple choices in some areas and smart choices in others. One large open space integrates the cafeteria and auditorium. Officials opted to for a concrete block exterior instead of red brick and the main floors are polished concrete instead of tile.
It may seem austere, but the stark design and dark concrete floors do not look out of place in the building's outside-indoors Pacific Northwest theme. Earthy tones, wooden beam ceilings, open spaces and large windows help bring nature indoors. Interior windows, modular design, and exposed building elements give the school a functional, organic feel.
“Our preference was to spend the money in the classroom where it impacts kids,” Green said.
Each classroom features isolated climate control, perforated ceilings to deaden echos and an integrated sound system which gently amplifies and evenly distributes the instructor's voice.
“One of the things we know about kids and learning is that if the volume of the teacher's voice is slightly amplified … students attend more and they learn better,” Green said.
Each room is equipped with projectors, whiteboards, and light bars which sense the brightness in the room and automatically adjust themselves to be dimmer in some spots to provide even light and save energy in sunlit rooms.
As a design feature, the campus features several nooks with benches or tables and open spaces where students can gather, which Principal John Shoup thinks will be a welcome change from the old campus where students settled for sitting on hallway floors. Outside of the cafeteria area is a large fenced-in courtyard with tables and plenty of space for students to study or socialize.
“It's a student courtyard that is really designed for kids to have an outdoor space that is safe and protected,” Green said. “Shared learning spaces and shared activity spaces are really designed around giving a flexible learning environment for kids, more of a college campus sort of feel.”
For security, the outer doors lock automatically when the school day begins, administrators can lock the building down remotely, and more than 100 security cameras give administrators eyes throughout the campus.
The campus includes three art rooms; a greenhouse attached to a floriculture classroom complete with a flower cooler and workshop; a new shop classroom with a car lift, welders, and several technical upgrades; and a fully equipped cooking classroom with added access to the school's commercial-grade kitchen facilities for professional level courses.
There is a new workout room that has already seen use; new science labs; a specially engineered and equipped band rehearsal hall; and a new football and soccer field with double the seating capacity of the old field. Increased lunchroom capacity means the school will move from an open campus for upperclassmen to a fully closed campus, making students safer.
Even with so many technological upgrades and gadgets and new facilities, the project came in so far under budget that officials were able to build an entire extra gymnasium out of the remaining funds and added artificial turf to the football field – provided the athletics department could raise enough money for its eventual replacement.
Athletics supporters sold engraved vanity bricks bearing donors names to fund the replacement, and Athletic Director Paul Huddleston laid the bricks himself Friday morning.
