After months of anticipation, Altoona Area High School students are set to step foot into their new school.

Workers broke ground on the nearly $80 million project, which included a new B building and renovations to the A building, in the spring of 2018. Two and a half years later, upperclassmen will have their first classes in the building this week.

Those who step into the building are greeted by a tall, sleek foyer with a “Welcome Back AASD Family” sign hanging from a balcony. The entrance resembles a modern performing arts center, while the classrooms mirror a university.

The building last week still had work to be done but mostly on the “details” — rearranging rooms, unpacking boxes and cleaning up dust and debris. In the vestibule, construction workers pushed carts through open glass doors. One fellow, Shane Staley, was scraping the concrete floor, preparing to lay carpet.

Paula Foreman, community relations director, said everything should be “good to go” in December.

Performing arts

Foreman led a tour to the light gray auditorium that can seat 1,200 people. It includes a balcony at the back and two sections of seating underneath, with projectors and retractable screens for small viewings.

Black metal seat frames are bolted to the concrete floor with the chairs in cardboard boxes stacked nearby. Foreman said she’ll return to a space from one day to the next and “be amazed with the progress made.”

The first hallway to the side of the auditorium has orchestra, chorus and band rooms. Each has a brick accent wall and large windows. Natural light saturates the entire building.

High School Principal Andrew Neely joined the tour outside the band room. He pointed out a door at the corner of the room that leads to the patio out front where he said small concerts can be held.

Rounding the corner past the music hallway is the fashion and costume room, positioned near the backstage entrance. It will be used also for family and consumer sciences classes.

“Our board has never faltered on the arts,” Foreman said.

Past the auditorium is the student commons — a high, wide room with pull-out bleachers on one side. A black box theater on the opposite side will be used for drama classes and dance.

Encircling the commons are “labs” for business courses. One adjacent lab has multiple glass doors that all open to the common area. Neely said this was designed to turn into a storefront to sell merchandise when smaller productions are featured.

Toward the back of the building, two teachers — Paige Matteson and Jeremiah Price — were taking a lunch break among boxes and materials on tables in a classroom. Price said they’d be working the next few days to rearrange their rooms for the students’ return on Nov. 12. Both teachers will lead life skills and learning support courses.

“I’m putting centers around the room for small group instruction,” Matteson said. “I’m really excited about setting up the kitchen. I’m a big cook.”

STEM

About 80% of the new high school building has special classrooms supporting science, technology, engineering, math and arts, Neely said.

The STEM center is a series of connected rooms, each designed for a different module in engineering and mechanical work: wood shop, metal fabrication, a “clean” lab designed for courses in biomedical technology, drafting, robotics and a small courtyard for robotics testing, and a centrally located STEM commons.

The robotics classroom is designed to accommodate both programming and hands-on work. Computers were lined up in tight rows to one side, with movable work desks at the other. Drones sat on a cart between two rows of computers.

“Over the last three years, we’ve been getting into robotics competitions,” Neely said.

The STEM commons stretches up to the top of the building. A balcony overlooks it from the second floor. Neely said the area is designed to allow physics experiments and drone testing.

“Typically, students would have to do testing in a hallway, but now they’ll have their own space,” Neely said.

When asked how the STEM center would interface with the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center, Neely said it wouldn’t conflict because it’s not full programming. Foreman added that the STEM center is designed for career exploration.

Security

Neely described security in the new school as “better” than in the old one. He said two key changes were giving the building one entrance and adding a vestibule. That entrance will have two security greeters to scan visitors’ identifications and run background checks.

A full-time district police officer will be stationed on the second floor, near the new Mountain Lion TV production center.

Teacher-designed

“The theme of this building is ‘flexibility,'” Neely said.

During the design and planning phase of construction, educators met to brainstorm the programs they wanted for students. They worked with the project architect to create a building that fit their creative vision.

Neely said they considered each element, down to the furniture. An example of that is the building’s more “traditional” classrooms on the third floor — they have trapezoidal rather than square desks, which are better suited for rearranging into small workgroups.

He called the design “teacher-driven” and hoped the new high school would stand the test of time, as had the old one, which stood for more than 90 years.

Mirror Staff Writer Dom Cuzzolina is at 814-946-7428.