August 24, 2010
By MELANIE LAGESCHULTE
‘I think we will be the envy of every high school in the state,’ says Principal Brenda Colby.
The halls and classrooms of the new Ankeny High School will be filled with students and bustling with activity one year from now.
The only sounds echoing through the under-construction structure now come from the buzz of power tools and the shuffling of workers’ shoes on the bare concrete floors. There’s a vague smell of sawdust and paint. The temporary stair risers are sturdy, but crafted from planks of plywood.
School board members and other district officials took a tour of the site on Aug. 16, getting a closer look at the 280,000-square-foot building coming together just off South Ankeny Boulevard in the Prairie Trail development. Construction began in fall 2008.
Ankeny High School Principal Brenda Colby had made so many trips to the site that she has her own hard hat. Colby said last week that the building will offer substantial educational opportunities along with style.
“I think we’re going to be the envy of every high school in the state,” Colby said. “It exceeds our hopes and dreams, it really does.”
The tour included hallways where sections of maroon lockers are waiting to be anchored. There was a stop in the future courtyard of the school, a peek at evolving classrooms and one cavernous space after the next – the main gymnasium, the kitchen and commons, the wrestling/multipurpose room and the auditorium.
“It’ll be a fully operational theater when it’s complete,” Eric Beron of DLR Group said of the auditorium, currently a gray-walled shell with the beginnings of a stage on one end. The tiers in the floor that will provide room for rows of seats were plainly visible.
DLR designed the school and also drew up the plans for the proposed Ankeny Centennial High School on Northwest State Street, which is nearly identical.
Construction Services Incorporated is the contractor for the new Ankeny High School. The total cost is estimated at $53.9 million, which includes fixtures, furnishings and equipment along with construction.
Most of the structure has been enclosed, but windows have yet to be installed in some spaces. Don Peterson, director of facility construction and development, said the last wing that will close off the courtyard will be going up soon.
The school’s design includes several energy and technology features, Beron said. In addition to a geothermal heating and cooling system, Beron said 95 percent of the space benefits from natural light. The glass used in the wall of south-facing windows in the cafeteria commons is designed to cut down on solar glare, he said.
All classrooms will include hookups so that ceiling-mounted projectors could be added, Beron said, noting the average classroom will be 850 to 870 feet, with chemistry areas being larger.
Peterson said some classrooms will have moveable walls to provide flexibility. That means that teachers in areas such as math, English and history could open up their spaces and team-teach lessons, he said.
Both the cafeteria commons and the media center will have a variety of seating options. Some will be portable so configurations can be changed based on the activity.
Peterson said the media center is expected to be a gathering place, where coffee and snacks could be sold, along with housing books and computers.
“Media centers are really becoming a social highlight now” in schools, he said.
State Rep. Kevin Koester, former director of community education and now a consultant for that department, went on the tour. Koester praised the layout of the school and the progress that has been made.
“I’m really impressed with how much is done a year ahead” of the August 2011 opening, he said.
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