Reconstruction junction

-Sarah Adler

Many students were quite confused as they rounded the corner on Westbank Drive the first day of school and found the entire parking lot next to the office entrance completely fenced off. But this is only one of the many changes introduced this year.

“All of these changes are part of a bond package approved by voters two years ago,” principal Linda Rawlings said. “It includes renovations on the library, the FAF [Fine Arts Facility], and the athletic facilities.”

The library is one of the major projects under construction, scheduled to be completed by the start of the next school year.
“A new hallway connecting the library to the Ninth Grade Center will be built where the current entryway is,” head librarian Carolyn Foote said. “It will be a glass hallway that runs along the side of the library. The roof is going to be raised and windows will be added in the central section of the library, and most of the brick on the outside will become windows as well. We’re trying to use recycled materials where we can and natural materials elsewhere.”

Because of a request from Foote, there will be a recycling center in the eating-friendly section of the new library. The floor plans are designed so that it will be open, but there will still be plenty of places to study or learn in a group.

“We’ll have two new computer labs, a media production area for video editing, and have wireless internet,” Foote said. “The idea is to make the new library as transparent as possible, more connected to the campus, and wired for the future.”
In addition to that, the FAF will be completely redone.

“Most of the construction will be about ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance, but other than that it’s just cosmetic things such as new chairs and doors,” FAF director Adam Bernstein said. “We are also upgrading our technical system to make it more up-to-date and flexible. All of this should, in turn, make a better theater production and environment.”
Neither the library, built back in 1969, nor the FAF have been updated recently, so all of the changes are simply “bringing it up to standard,” according to Rawlings.

After all of these improvements, the school is also adding a new choir hall at the top of the hill behind the Chap Court. Choir students currently practice in the lecture halls next to the FAF, which is an inconvenience for the singers, as well as for others who need the FAF seats.

“With the new choir building, we will finally have a place of our own,” junior JJ Picone said.

It will also be more technologically advanced and help the choir with their rehearsals.

“I look forward to the improvements,” choir director Edward Snouffer said. “The room will be outfitted with sound equipment that will allow us to record and evaluate our rehearsals.”

The construction site is so difficult to access that cranes will be used. Because traffic is prohibited from that area, the entire parking lot by the office is inaccessible. With that closure, the administration was forced to move visitor parking over by the Chap Court. Those spots, in addition to those needed for Information Systems, now occupy about 60 spots that had previously been available for students.

“What the students need to remember is that I opened up parking around a circular drive with a gravel road off the regular parking in the Ben Hur [junior] lot and added probably about 50 or 60 spots that we didn’t have last year,” Rawlings said. “At the end of the day, we probably have just as many parking spots as we did last year, it’s just not paved.”

Approximately 300 new spots in the Ben Hur lot will be created on the land between Ben Hur and Capital of Texas Highway which is owned by EISD.

In addition, the athletic facilities are also being updated. The main gym, basketball locker room bathrooms, the dugout on the baseball field, the football stadium, and the fields by the Ninth Grade Center are all either being repainted, redone or reconstructed. However, there is always more that can be done.

“We do wish that the separate referendum for an indoor practice facility for all activities had passed,” Athletic Events and Facilities Coordinator Lisa Schlimgen said. “As we have seen already this year with the large amount of rain we had in August, a facility like this would be utilized by many extracurricular programs at Westlake High School.”

Overall, with the $53 million bond package, the school is being brought up to the high standards set for it and getting upgraded out of the ‘70s.

“I’m excited about the renovations,” sophomore Stephanie Collinge said. “I think it will make Westlake a better place.”