Chelsea High to receive 21-classroom addition

Chelsea High School is growing, and not just in student population numbers. In early March, construction started on an addition to the school that will house 21 classrooms and one science lab.

Plans for the addition were first announced in May 2016 as part of the Shelby County Board of Education’s plans for capital improvements. The project will be funded from revenue generated from refinancing the district’s existing debt at a lower interest rate, securing about $5.52 million for multiple capital projects in the county.

“The school board has known that we have a need, and being able to refinance and make this happen sooner, rather than later, has been really nice for us,” said Chelsea High School Principal Wayne Trucks.

CHHS is set to have about 1,250 students next year, and the Chelsea school zone has continued to see growing numbers at the middle and elementary school levels. During the 2016-17 school year, CHHS had 13 portable classrooms after removing four from the construction zone. 

“It will meet our current needs, but the zone is still growing,” Trucks said of the classroom addition. “The community is still growing.”

The designated use for the addition has not been set, Trucks said, but there definitely will be some reshuffling of classroom locations.

“We know that we’ll have lots of movement in the building, particularly since it’s 21 [classrooms],” he said. “We’ve got 13 portables now, and since we’ve got 13, most of those folks will come inside.”

Classrooms taught in the portables outside of the school are from a range of subjects and grade levels, so no students are in a portable classroom for the whole school day, Trucks said. Sometimes the classrooms in the portables, however, face limitations on technology. They rely on a WiFi connection, and it can be difficult to get laptop and Chromebook carts out to the classrooms.

“The biggest positive is the fact that we will have everybody under the same roof, which eliminates the concern of ‘Do the kids outside the building get the same opportunities as the kids inside the building?’” Trucks said.

Extra space indoors also will be helpful in the case of severe weather. Classes in the outdoor classrooms must be brought inside during storms, where space is limited and sometimes cramped.

“We think [the addition] it’s going to be awesome because it’s going to really help with inclement weather, having everybody inside,” Trucks said. “One of the challenges now is we have to bring everybody outside inside the building, so we’re kind of all on top of each other. It should help us from a safety [standpoint].”

CHHS’ science department also is set to benefit from the new science lab. The school has one lab, which is used by nine teachers. A second lab will allow teachers to more easily schedule lab time and use the lab more frequently. 

The 33,000-34,000-square-foot addition is set to take about 300 days to be completed. Trucks said they are hopeful the addition will be completed in January, but that timeline will also depend on the weather. 

“The community is very excited,” Trucks said. “The teachers are very excited — especially the ones that have been outside. … It’ll really help us meet the needs of our students, and that’s going to be the biggest thing.”