About the New
Novi High School
July, 2003

Construction work is well underway at Novi High School, after beginning towards the end of the school year. Due to this city's increasing population, it was time for some changes at Novi High School.  Backed by overwhelming community support, in June 2001 the People of Novi approved a school bond, of which $18 million is going toward the high school's construction project to improve on what is already one of the top schools in the country.

So even though school's out, Novi High School is busier than ever as workers rush to finish this summer's major construction work. The majority of this summer is devoted to fixing the high school's parking problem, in order to make everything a little less hectic, before work inside of the school begins.
 
When classes were finished at the end of the year, the foundation for the new building on Taft Rd. was begun, leaving ¼ of the Taft parking lot for teacher parking. The visitor's parking lot was torn up, which left only the 10 Mile lot for the entire driving student body. Needless to say, there were parking issues for the kids.

Luckily, for students and parents, the 10 Mile lot is set to be enlarged to almost twice its current size over the summer. In addition, a new student parking lot will be built over what were the baseball and softball fields, on the south side of the school, and new fields will spring up behind that. Teachers will be parking in an enlarged former visitor's lot, on which construction began during the school year. The few spots left in the Taft lot, in front of what will be the new building, will be used by the construction workers.

As if that's not good enough, the parking is only the pre-construction. It can be viewed as just minor work that has to be done before the real construction starts. The high school building will be renovated afterwards, to help create room in what is a crowded school today. With the yearly increase in the number of incoming freshmen, a larger school is a must. A larger cafeteria, a new pool, a new Cat Rack school store, and improved music and broadcasting areas are only a few additions included in the construction project inside of the school.

Of course the construction doesn't come without its negatives. Current students can only imagine the bigger and better Novi High School. Though they'll go through the daily routine of beeping and crashing during test taking, eating in the performance gym, and sharing the media center with the attendance, counseling, and main offices, they won't see many benefits. Chances are most of the students won't get to be there when the work is done -- unless they're teaching. Construction isn't scheduled to be completed until 2005.

From new parking lots, to new and improved classrooms, to a brand new building, it's hard to expect anything less from the Novi Community School District, and from the People of Novi that approved the project. And while many of the students won't get to experience the new Novi High School, they can always say they were the last ones that went there back when that new building was just an old parking lot.

(c) 2003 the Novi Information Network