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Parker and Craig ready to show off changes for students

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Renovated high schools

Newly renovated Craig and Parker high schools open to students on Tuesday.

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JANESVILLE — They’re bigger, brighter, cooler and—officials hope—more attractive than ever before.

They are Janesville’s public high schools, which a majority of voters agreed nearly three years ago should be expanded and remodeled.

More than $70 million later, the expansion projects are nearly complete.

Students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades who walk through the doors Tuesday have a good idea of what to expect because parts of the buildings were completed last school year.

But most students haven’t seen the entire project, and by the reactions of students who toured the schools over the past several months, they’ll be impressed.

Parker Principal Steve Schroeder said nearly every part of the school has changed. Both schools have been altered considerably.

“It’s really like a new school in the old shell,” said Craig teacher Bob Schrank.

“Everything looks so much brighter,” said Parker junior Markus Murdy.

“This is gonna be so cool,” Murdy commented as he looked around.

Students accompanied the principals and a Janesville Gazette reporter and photographer on tours of the new facilities over the past two weeks.

Seniors Lindsey Ellenberger, Megan Muhs and Kelsey Swales took the Craig tour. At Parker were senior class president Erin Jensen and Murdy.

Here’s a sampling of what they saw and what they thought about it:

Locker rooms

“They’re huge!” said a delighted Jensen when she saw the girls athletics lockers. Many of the lockers are full-length, with room for at least three ninth-graders inside, she joked.

Both schools feature “privacy showers,” with a little changing room in front of each shower.

Muhs immediately saw an advantage: No more puddles all over the locker room from people walking from the shower to their lockers to change.

“That will be so nice,” Muhs said.

“And a lot of people are not comfortable with being unclothed in front of other people,” Craig Principal Mike Kuehne said.

In the phy ed locker rooms, lockers are twice as big as they used to be.

“Fitting shoes in there was impossible,” Jensen said.

Lockers are more secure—made of heavier metal and very difficult to break into, Schroeder said.

Music

Both schools got remodeled and expanded performing-arts wings.

In both cases, rooms with sunken, tiered performing spaces were filled in, and moveable risers now are used when needed.

“It really makes the room much more usable,” Schrank said.

“The band room is seriously cool,” said Murdy, a trumpet player.

Parker band teacher John Biester said contractors were more than helpful, installing bigger air vents to the band room after Biester noticed the rush of air through the smaller ones gave out a hiss.

At Craig, “Ever since I’ve been here, orchestra has always been playing second fiddle. They did not have their own room,” Kuehne said. Now they do.

Also at Craig is a new room outfitted with the latest musical instruments: computers. A music technology class will be taught there.

Commons

Both schools have extra spaces where corridors widen that principals have designated as “commons” areas. One of them takes up what was once Craig’s Tech Center East, where furniture donated by Mercy Health System will provide a place for students to hang out before and after school, Kuehne said.

Parker has a similar space.

“Nice chill-out space,” Murdy commented.

The only place to “chill” in the past was in the library, and you needed a pass to go there, Jensen added.

One area at Parker will include a wall where distinguished alumni will be enshrined, similar to the Craig Wall of Honor.

Art

Both schools got new art rooms. Parker’s are part of a new art/science wing that was added to the northeast side of the school, facing Mineral Point Avenue.

Art will have much more space, with separate rooms dedicated to metals, pottery and photography.

“They’re diggin’ this,” Jensen said of her art teachers.

One innovation at Parker are pull-down electrical outlets that are connected to spring-wound reels in the ceiling. The idea came from the tech ed classrooms.

Finding an outlet for art equipment had been a daily challenge, Jensen recalled. Now, electricity can be delivered to any area of the room.

The Parker art wing will include a space for displaying student work, essentially a mini art museum.

Science

Both schools got new science rooms, each of which is both a teaching laboratory and a sit-down classroom. Parker got more of those because of greater need. Parker had only two actual science labs, which had changed little since 1967. Craig got new lab/classrooms during renovations in 1994.

The Parker science addition has 12 science rooms.

Until last year, when some of the rooms opened up, Parker students rarely used computers for science work.

Now, students can work on papers or go online to prepare for Advanced Placement tests, for example.

At Craig, the three seniors reacted immediately when walking into a new science room and seeing flat-screen computers mounted on the walls. The old laptops had been hard to work with, with their tangle of wires, they said.

Parker has a two-story greenhouse for use by science classes, something it had not had before.

“I’ve told the science people they’ve got a big job ahead of them, keeping this area looking nice, because it faces the front of the building,” Schroeder said.

Special education

One goal at Parker was to bring the rooms for the physically handicapped students from the upstairs to the ground floor.

Parker’s new special ed rooms are more spacious, and they include a commercial kitchen, where students can learn job skills. Officials used federal stimulus money to expand the kitchen, adding a fridge, freezer and an extra sink.

One other advantage for the special ed kids: Windows. Their former digs not only were cramped; they were in interior rooms.

Craig’s special ed rooms had been remodeled previously.

One of Craig’s Family and Consumer Education rooms also has a commercial kitchen. Kuehne said students should learn job skills in FACE, not just home cooking.

Terraced computers

Both schools have a few rooms in which computers are set up in tiers, with the back row the highest, so the teacher has a view of students’ screens.

Students face the rear of the rooms to work on computers. When they face the front of the class, there’s a table in front of them, so they don’t need to push keyboards and mouses out of the way in order to find work space.

The idea came from a tour of a new high school in Fond du Lac, Schroeder said.

Both schools now have more computer labs, which helps with scheduling.

“We had a hard time getting all the classes in; there were so many overlaps,” Jensen said.

At Craig, students won’t be able to hide the fact that they’re logged on to Bubble Shooter, a popular online game, Swales remarked.

Utilities

Both high schools are air-conditioned. Air flow and temperature are computer-controlled. Controls allow for room-by-room adjustments.

Windows have been replaced and are energy efficient. Venetian blinds still are standard, but they’re sandwiched between the panes of glass, so it’s nearly impossible to damage them, and they don’t need to be dusted.

All the windows can be opened.

Much of the buildings have new lights and ceiling panels. Most lights have motion censors that turn off the lights if they detect no motion.

Administration

If you include the guidance counselors and the new career center, the administration area at Parker is about twice as big as it had been, Schroeder said.

Parker’s spacious new career center has 13 computers, where students can research options for college or fill out applications.

Craig got new offices during its 1994 renovations.

Odds and ends

-- The front of Parker is brand new, but to see something new on the outside of Craig, you have to drive around to the side to see the new gym, or to the rear.

“My favorite view of Craig right now,” Kuehne said as he showed off the new cafeteria and classroom wing on the east side of the school.

Kuehne likes it so much that he wanted to make the rear of the school a student entrance, but that wouldn’t work because offices are at the front.

-- Students at both schools already have experienced the awesomeness of their new weight rooms and cavernous new gymnasiums. That didn’t stop the students from being impressed.

“This is really nice. This is awesome,” Swales said of the weight room.

“I’m really excited for my strength-and-conditioning class,” added Ellenberger.

Kuehne said he had never seen the weight room used more than it has been this summer.

-- Classrooms take up spaces where halls used to be, and vice versa, at Parker. At Craig, most of the original halls remain.

-- Many classrooms are bigger. Both schools feature some rooms with moveable walls, so that two or three rooms can become one big room.

-- Teachers have more room for offices, and most teachers have their own rooms. Before, some teachers traveled from room to room during the day, never having a room to call home.

-- Both schools feature an ATM, which will limit the amount of cash a student can withdraw.

-- Both schools feature school stores, run by marketing students, where students can buy school supplies, clothing and snacks.

-- The track and football field renovations in the Craig “bowl” are not part of the referendum. They’re part of the regular maintenance budget. Parker got the same renovations last year.

HIGH SCHOOL CHRONOLOGY

1955—A new Janesville High School opens at 401 S. Randall Ave.

1967—Construction begins on a second high school, on the city’s west side.

1968—Parker High School opens. The old Janesville High becomes Craig High School.

1976-78—Craig renovations.

1994—Craig addition, later dubbed “the hot dog” is built, along with modern science and art rooms.

2002—School board discusses a possible $69 million referendum, then trims the price to $54 million. Ultimately, the board decides that voter sticker shock would mean defeat. The board decides to split the projects, asking for less money the following year, and then holding a second referendum sometime later.

2003—Voters on April 1 narrowly reject a $37.2 million plan to remodel and expand Craig, Parker and four elementary schools. The school board brings the same question to another referendum Nov. 4, which also is defeated.

2004—Voters on Feb. 17 pass a $16.99 million referendum to expand and remodel five elementary schools.

2006—Voters approve a $70.8 million referendum to expand the two high schools. It is the most expensive school-construction referendum ever approved in the state up to that time.