Tour of new WB Area high school shows much of work completed

Apr. 16—PLAINS TWP. — The first time Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello showed off the site of the new consolidated high school after construction began, he stood amid the muck and materials of a barely carved-out site and managed to see a grand hallway where almost nothing existed.

"This will be Main Street," he beamed.

On a recent tour, he stood in the same spot and eagerly talked of all the activities the now-completed hallway will soon host, natural light flooding in from skylights in the roof and giant windows on each end, the floor being laid in the gym on one side while acoustic tiles were hung in the auditorium on the other, and the distant vision now very real with contractors closing in on 90 percent completion of the area's newest high school.

"There will be an LCD screen above the ticket booth showing upcoming events," Costello said. There are small spaces along the walls that can be used as shops, grab and go food stations, and a radio station that the district will be able to stream live on line.

Floors are being poured and polished, and many rooms are ready for furniture. He walked past the different sections to be dedicated to specific "Academies:" The existing Creative And Performing Arts Academy will have multiple rooms in an area behind the ample stage of the auditorium, the STEM Academy rooms further back will have the latest computer and 3D printing equipment, and the new space for the new Business Academy will have a stock market "ticker" board akin to those in the business schools of both King's College and Wilkes University.

"Main Street" is wide enough and central enough to also put some dining tables outside the large cafeteria, which can open to an outdoor patio for warm weather.

As promised, some space is set aside for a "heritage room" that will house items from the three high schools — Meyers, Coughlin and GAR Memorial — merging into the new building. The area includes a conference room so organizations using the facility can meet amid the memorabilia.

The building sports small collaboration rooms that will be separated with large glass panes students can write and draw on with erasable markers, similar to rooms seen in college science centers.

The building will offer small learning centers, flex space at the ends of each classroom wing with vistas of the valley looking north, and several larger group instruction rooms. Even the classrooms themselves will invite collaboration, with each student having a laptop that can share its screen with the large computerized white boars on the walls.

The pool, once literally not much more than a hole in the ground, is fully formed and enclosed. The double-sized gym — which can be divided into two regulation basketball courts or opened for larger events, is ringed as promised by a second story track. The auditorium stage has a large back entrance to allow bigger equipment, props or scenery to be moved in and out, with a large storage space to house such items.

The media room will hold 10,000 volumes, and give students computer access to a wide range of online journals and resources, countering a long standing complaint that the district's school libraries have aged and fallen into disuse.

And even the outside grounds are taking shape, with much of the paving done, the lights up and trees being planted.

The school will always have its critics, who contend it will be too large, and that the former mine land will be toxic. Costello and district officials have rejected the arguments, noting the project has the approval of government environmental regulators.

And now that he has a real building to show off, Costello notes that, while "Main Street" looks huge, a stroll into the classroom wings shows how students will feel like they are in a smaller building most of the time, with the rooms themselves deliberately sized to hold no more than 24 students.

The school is set to open this fall.