The portables across from the visitor lot will be ready for use beginning in the fall of 2025. Currently, the portables are part of the first of three phases of the reconstruction of the whole school.

Since the next phases involve tearing down and rebuilding the 500, 600 and 700 buildings, the portables will be used as temporary classrooms to allow learning to continue throughout the renovation. Brian Jones (he/him), one of the construction managers for the project, is currently working to get the portables ready for use. 

“Once we start the construction next summer, we have to tear down a couple buildings that are in the footprint of the new building we want to build,” Jones said. 

 Due to the scale of the renovation, it will take several years before every class is rebuilt. Principal Adam Desautels (he/him) said that although the portables are not ideal classrooms, they are here to stay for a while. 

“Once the entire construction project is done, they probably won’t need the portables, but it’s gonna be a long project – three phases – which might be 10 years from now,” Desautels said. 

The newly added portables will be classrooms for language and career technical education classes. As students adjust, they should be prepared to face some temporary challenges like traffic and parking near the portables.

“It’ll definitely impact traffic for walking, especially since we have so many people that come up here to park or to drop kids off up here, and we’re going to have another group of students crossing that road to the portables,” Desautels said. 

Despite these challenges, Desautels said the portables do have advantages over the old ones.

“Our regular classrooms in this building don’t even have air conditioners. So that’s a perk of the portables as well. And they’re newer than those portables, so they’re in better shape.”

Jones said that the school renovation is a new beginning for all the students that are looking forward to it, despite the challenges.

“There are some trade-offs with some inconvenience with the construction going on, but that’s been very minor,” he said. “Everybody’s just very excited to see the new buildings and the new opportunities that we’ll have to kind of customize the learning experience for every student.”