Whenever students return to Eureka High School, they will be greeted by a new science experience.
A new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) building was opened on Aug. 14, allowing teachers to start setting up their spaces 10 days before classes were to start for the school year.
Unfortunately, because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19, Rockwood School District students began the year learning remotely, and only teachers have been able to enjoy the 92,000-square-foot addition.
Matt Strickland, the science department chair, said he is excited about teaching students in the new building and taking advantage of the updated features. Strickland, who has taught at Eureka High for 19 years, said he looks forward to using the high-bay lab, a two-story space with a balcony.
“The biggest improvement will be not only the space to be able to spread out a lot of things, but I teach physics and having a high-bay lab will be phenomenal for us,” he said. “We’ll be able to do a lot more experiments as far as drops and in projectiles, things like that.”
Strickland said teachers are taking advantage of having more lab rooms to either record lessons or interact with students while conducting experiments.
“I think one of the big ways for science teachers (to take advantage of the building) is to be able to go in and video labs or be able to live stream labs as they’re occurring,” he said. “That way the kids can actually see how these labs will operate.”
Construction
Rockwood facilities director Chris Freund said the project started in August 2018, with construction beginning in March 2019.
Freund said the addition cost just more than $30 million, with construction coming in at $25,572,000. K&S Associates Inc. of St. Louis built the addition.
The district paid for the new building with proceeds from a $95.5 million bond issue voters approved in April 2017. The bond issue also paid for the construction of a new Eureka Elementary School, which opened last year, and a renovation project at Geggie Elementary School that was completed in 2018.
Freund said the STEM building’s construction was not without some difficulties.
“Some of the biggest challenges were when we made the connection to (the high school),” he said. “A lot of utilities came in this route. We had some stuff existing that ended up being much deeper than we had projected and the weather really didn’t cooperate with us a whole lot.”
Rockwood also renovated Eureka High’s world language classrooms, expanded the cafeteria, updated the cafeteria’s bathrooms, added a quiet cafe to the cafeteria and expanded the student store to make more room for merchandise, Principal Corey Sink said.
The construction timeline was sped up a little when the district called off in-person classes in mid-March because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Freund said with no students or staff in the high school, construction could take place during times when the school would typically be occupied.
“There was definitely some benefit as far as timeline,” he said. “We were able to complete it in a shorter time making sure we’re done for school, but the other thing was it didn’t require a lot of overtime.”
Using the space
Eureka High assistant principal Ann Gilman said everything in the design of the building had a purpose. The floor tiles in some rooms measure one meter.
“You no longer have to put tape on the floor for kids to measure. The measuring is done for you,” she said.
Gilman said the first floor is primarily physical science classrooms, and the second floor is mostly devoted to biology and chemistry. She said 23 classes could be happening at the same time and there would still be extra rooms.
The STEM building has other classrooms that will not be used this year, and that was by design, Gilman said, with those spaces expected to be needed in the future because of the projected growth coming to the Eureka area.
“We’ve planned for some empty space now, because we know in the next five years we’re growing,” she said.
Gilman said she has been involved from the beginning with the planning and design of the building and its incorporation into the campus. She said her favorite feature is the new entrance for the high school.
“It’s very modern but still very welcoming, and that’s who Eureka is,” she said.
Eureka High’s main entrance used to be in the center of the front of the building, but has been moved to the north side, between the main high school building and the STEM addition.
Sink said the redesigned entrance has enhanced safety features.
“There’s two (sets) of security, the front door coming into a building, and then you cannot get past that second (set) of doors to school without someone allowing you to move past there,” Sink said.
Freund said the new entrance also will help visitors.
“There was really no definite entrance to the building, you pulled up and you kind of stumbled around, trying to figure out ‘Where do I go?’ ” Freund said. “Now I don’t think there’s any question when you pull on this campus where you’re supposed to go.”