For the week of July 18 - July 24, 2001

Proposed new high school revealed

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By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Though ground has not yet been broken for a new Wood River High School, school district officials hope to have the building pad adjacent to the existing school in place before snowfall.

Design approval and a proposed planned unit development, to permit excess building height and fewer parking spaces, and are still under review by the city of Hailey. However, at the school board’s monthly budget meeting on July 10, architect Nate Turner, of Lombard, Conrad in Boise, displayed a color rendition of the proposed 180,000-square-foot structure.

Architect’s rendition of new Wood River High School. Image courtesy Hummel Architects P.A.

At the urging of the school district, the architects have tried to integrate the look of several Hailey buildings in their design concept of the school to give it a more indigenous feel. Among the buildings used as examples of the downtown Hailey style are the Willis Building, the Hailey Town Hall, Windemere Realty and The Mint.

The surfaces in the new plans call for split-faced concrete block and brick veneer. Exterior colors range from red brick, sandstone concrete, glass and green trim. The upper levels of the building will be in the lighter shade, Turner said, and "should blend in with the hills."

Turner said that because of the existing school and the mountains, this was the most difficult site the architects had worked with when designing a new school. However, the board was pleased with the new look.

"What the architects have come back with, I think this community will be proud of for a long, long time," Lewis said.

Other items discussed at this meeting were:

• Approval of five new teacher contracts and the employment of a new director of buildings and grounds, Jim Bennion.
  
  

• Assistant Superintendent Mary Gervase related that the Idaho State Board of Education has waived the requirements for students in grades 3-11 to participate in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills testing and TAP testing. Lewis said he had some concerns about dropping the testing altogether. "Idaho tends to go to extremes, like a pendulum," he said. He asked that the board take more time to study the issue of levels testing. Lewis called the tests a good way to ascertain students’ growth compared to national levels. He added that if the district does continue the testing, it would move it to the spring rather than fall.

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