After years of planning, construction of the new Neenah High School begins. Here's a look inside.
Samantha WestFOX CROSSING - Fourteen months after Neenah Joint School District voters approved a $114.9 million referendum — plus years of planning before and after — construction of the new high school has officially begun.
The district on Thursday celebrated the ground-breaking of the school, to be located along County II on a 220-acre site. The school is scheduled to be completed in two years, in time for the 2023-24 school year.
In an interview earlier this week, District Administrator Mary Pfeiffer told the Post-Crescent that, on one hand, Thursday marks the end of a "remarkable journey" for the community — as well as a new, exciting day in the Neenah Joint School District.
"To be on site and see this reality taking place is really wonderful,' Pfeiffer said. "I think our community is going to be really excited once, two years from now, they see the finished product of what this school is going to look like."
Referendum planning began in 2018 and, in April 2019, voters narrowly rejected the district's first referendum request of $130 million, which would've funded a new middle school to replace the nearly 100-year-old Shattuck Middle School, among other facility upgrades.
The district went back to the drawing board, hosting community engagement sessions that led to a new proposal. At the heart of it was the construction of a new, state-of-the art $157 million high school.
The April 2020 referendum, which passed with 54% of the vote, funds four other projects:
- $7.5 million to convert the current high school, at 1275 Tullar Road, into two schools: an intermediate school serving grades 5-6 in the Conant/north wing and a middle school serving grades 7-8 in the Armstrong/south wing
- $4 million to update safety and security at all district buildings
- $4 million to address districtwide Americans with Disabilities Act issues
- $9.2 million to address other districtwide capital improvements
With a total cost of $181.7 million, the first phase is funded with the referendum, as well as $20 million diverted from the district's operating budget over four years and an additional $47 million obtained through non-referendum borrowing that didn't require voter approval.
RELATED: Here's the latest look at plans for the new Neenah High School
Thursday's groundbreaking comes after a year of finalizing plans for the new high school. Like the referendum planning process, designing the high school, too, was collaborative.
The district divided 125 people into eight teams that each had a mix of teachers, support staff, operations and maintenance staff, administrators, school board members and community members. Each team took on different areas of the new high school, from performing arts and athletic facilities to learning and technology spaces or staff development areas, as well as the other projects included in the facilities plans.
Bray Architects and Miron Construction, too, were an integral part of the planning process, Pfeiffer said. Whenever committee members had ideas, Bray did "everything they could" to make them come to fruition, and Bray was there to keep an eye on the budget.
"They both have really gone to the next level in trying to problem solve and trying to create what's going to be a wonderful space for our entire community for decades," Pfeiffer said.
Ryan Sands, vice president of Bray Architects said the committees' conversations started with two key questions: "What works well at Neenah High School right now?" and "What do we want to be different?"
What emerged from the process, Sands said, is a modern, cohesive high school campus that features a lot of rocket-red and white, plenty of windows to let in as much natural light as possible, and hallways that allow visitors to "see learning on display."
While many high school technology education, lab spaces, art and engineering classrooms are hidden in the back of the building, Sands said those spaces will be front and center in the north side of the new Neenah High School.
At the heart of the school, Sands said, will be eating and common spaces. Then, if one makes their way south, they'll find Neenah's activities on display: Music rooms, competition gyms and other athletic spaces.
It's not just about the students, though. Another big part of the project, Sands said, is the investment made in teacher-focused spaces. Part of the designs are dedicated spaces for work, collaboration and breaks.
What Sands hopes district students, staff, parents and other community members notice in the finished high school, though, is the spirit of collaboration and Neenah pride that went into it.
Committee members came to meetings full of great ideas that ultimately shifted plans. For example, because Emily Bennett, a high school biology teacher, expressed interest in growing the district hydroponics program to be an integral part of the district's food service program, there is now a dedicated space for it in the plans.
"It's just been awesome to see that sense of pride in the district, and how much passion they put in this process," Sands said. "I think the finished product will be really reflective of the time and effort they put into the process."
Contact reporter Samantha West at 920-996-7207 or swest@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BySamanthaWest.