With the start of a fresh school year, everyone is finally settling into the new 1700s wing, located behind the athletics hall, as they prepare to utilize the new space and equipment. 

“[The teachers] are still unpacking and sorting and waiting for orders and things like that,” culinary arts teacher Ms.Chestnut said.

Last year the cooking courses were struggling to find the space to comfortably satisfy their curriculum, but now with their facilities within the new wing, completed with 10 student cooking stations, they have the resources to give students a proper lab experience.

“My culinary kids last year cooked on camping ranges,” Chestnutt said. “And Ms.Southherd’s class had the six small kitchens, and there’s windows, which is amazing, and our demo table has cameras attached to it for the kids to watch.”

Alongside the new labs, there are also 18 regular classrooms that teachers have been moved into. Including Mr. Honeycutt, who teaches AP World History to sophomores and AP Government to seniors. 

“This classroom is slightly smaller than my old classroom,” Honeycutt said. “It also has a partition that divides it from Ms. Pearson-Pratho’s classroom, but the noise isn’t nearly what we feared.”

Of course, like with any new facilities, there are still a few bugs to work out. A former external door, leading from the athletics hall, now goes directly into the 1700s, and while students are having no issues during the day, the teachers are having some problems once the school bell rings. 

“I believe that the administration is still trying to study the traffic flow patterns,” Honeycutt said. “I know that the athletic hallway can be a bit of a challenge because that door used to be an outside door and now it’s an inside door in the 1700s.”

Despite this, many are optimistic about the opportunities the new wing brings, such as sophomore Jacob Pawlik, who is currently enrolled in one of the culinary courses. 

“We haven’t gotten to use the new kitchens yet,” Pawlik said, “but I am excited to get in there and get started.”