by Clark C. and Colby L.

For those who haven’t heard, Alamo Heights High School has been under construction for about seven to eight months now—but why? Thanks to Ms. Smith, the principal at AHHS, these questions (and more) have been answered.

According to Ms. Smith, the construction project at Alamo Heights High School is “to completely replace our old main academic building.” She explained, “That building housed English, Math, Social Studies, Special Education, and World Languages,” emphasizing how important the old building was. She also noted that it contained 60 classrooms.

While highlighting the significance of the main building, Ms. Smith also pointed out that it was around 70 years old. She further stated, “The Texas Education Agency, also known as T.E.A., has minimum requirements for classrooms and school buildings, and our classroom size was not up to minimum standards for T.E.A.” Essentially, the state of Texas required classrooms to be larger than they were, making this one of the key reasons for the high school’s construction project.

In addition to that, there were other major issues with the old building. Ms. Smith explained, “We didn’t really have enough electrical outlets in every classroom, and the building itself wasn’t really designed for collaboration among students.”

Thanks to Ms. Smith and the architects, a new solution for these problems has emerged. The principal shared, “We’re gaining 33,000 square feet of space in that new building. Part of that comes from making the classrooms larger. Our old classrooms were roughly 650 square feet on average, and our new classrooms are going up to 800 square feet.” This change will help address the lack of outlets and create more collaborative space for students.

Speaking of collaboration, Ms. Smith emphasized, “We wanted to design a space because a lot of our classrooms and our classes are done with collaboration and project-based learning. And so a lot of our new spaces in the building are going to have that.” Clearly, creating more opportunities for students to work together is a key goal of the construction project. “Our goal is for it to feel very much like a space where kids can learn and grow in the way that they do best,” she added.

“We’re going to continue to grow and evolve into using that space the way that it was intended to—having students be able to get outside of their classroom and collaborate and do projects together,” the AHHS principal said. She also shared, “There’s going to be lots of tables and benches that are built around our trees in the oaks so that kids will be able to go outside more and use that space,” highlighting exciting new outdoor learning areas.

The old AHHS main building was an essential part of the school. However, at 70 years old, it no longer met students’ needs. Thankfully, Ms. Smith and the administrators made the decision to fully remodel the building, addressing these issues while adding new and improved features. Overall, the construction at the high school was much needed, and when it’s completed in about a year and a half, Alamo Heights High School will be even more extraordinary than before.