New high school on schedule to open in the fall of 2025
The new Hot Springs World Class High School remains on schedule to open in the fall of 2025 as the district prepares to start its final school year in its current 1968 building later this summer.
“Construction is going wonderfully,” Hot Springs School District Superintendent Stephanie Nehus said last week.
“We are on schedule, and that’s always the word you want to hear when you’re building a building and you have an anticipated opening date. And so everything’s moving very well along,” she said.
The $37.8 million, 140,000-square-foot, three-story building is being constructed on the west end of campus at the corner of Emory and Panama streets. The district, which did not seek a millage increase, broke ground on the building on May 31, 2023. It will house approximately 750-800 students in grades 10-12.
The building is expected to be fully enclosed, Nehus noted, within the next few weeks. She said a lot of work is currently being done on the interior, with tiling and painting of the walls, along with framing out the restrooms.
“Really the next steps, we have had some finishing meetings, so, making sure we’ve got all of the different floorings picked out, all of the different wall accents that we’re doing, colors, you know, anything like that … all of the millwork, which is the cabinetry and those types of things. So we’ve been having meetings on those, making sure we’re finalizing those different components. And the work will just keep continuing,” she said.
The real challenge is the change in the school calendar, which has shortened the allotted time to work in the summer, Nehus said. Earlier this year, the
school board unanimously adopted a nontraditional school calendar that will see students start the 2024-2025 school year on July 29 and go through June 6, 2025, with several breaks built into the year.
While it will not necessarily affect the construction, she said it gives the district a shorter window to prepare for the shift to the next school next summer. The district is scheduled to take the certificate of occupancy of the new building at the end of April 2025.
“We will have to do some shifting so that we can prepare, like the current science building,” she said. “That has to be renovated before August of 2025, so we will shift science classrooms into the new building as soon as we get the certificate of occupancy. And then we’ll start some of those renovations immediately as well. So the next year is going to be just really fast and furious.”
Separated into three phases, the second phase will begin next summer with the tearing down of the current high school, construction of a multipurpose gymnasium, and the remodeling of the science building as an extension of Hot Springs Junior Academy.
Phase three will see the construction of a soccer field and tennis courts on the site of the current high school once it is torn down.
Nehus said the only major change during the new school’s construction was the bathroom design, in adopting a more open concept. The new design will make it harder for students to get away with such prohibited activities as smoking electronic cigarettes.
“We are doing a new, innovative bathroom design and we did make that decision after construction had started, so we had to do a little shifting of some plans,” she said. “But we’re really excited about that. It’s more of an open design instead of closed doors and enclosed spaces. So that’s the big change that we made, but I think that it’ll be a great one for the future.”
The project marks Nehus’ third building project to oversee following the 2019 opening of the new Langston Elementary Leadership Academy and 2020 opening of the Hot Springs Junior Academy.
“A large construction project is quite stressful and there are so many factors out of our control. You know, supply and demand, getting materials and supplies in, weather is a huge component, and so I think the first thing I (recently) said was, ‘We’re almost totally enclosed.’ Like, to me, that’s a huge sigh of relief, because then weather doesn’t impact the work that really needs to be done,” she said.
While brickwork and siding work still have to be done to the outside, she said she feels good about where they are in the process.
“So much has to be done on the inside and until you get under the dry, it’s just a lot of holding your breath,” she said. “I just can’t applaud our construction team enough. Our construction management team, Hill and Cox, our architects, French (Architects), Crafton Tull engineers … all of the people that comprise our team are just outstanding individuals and excellent partners. And they do everything they can to keep us on schedule, to ensure we’re getting the best prices.”