Auburn City Schools has been working to solve the issue of future student growth for quite some time. The solution to this problem is coming in the form of the new Auburn High School, which is projected to be complete in April 2017, with classes starting in August 2017.
"The system started really looking at how to approach the student enrollment growth," said Karen DeLano, superintendent of Auburn City Schools.
"In the fall of 2012, we hired a facility planning group to work with us," DeLano said. "They brought some demographers and did a growth study. What we suspected and were able to confirm is that we had grades six-12 with their buildings reaching capacity."
According to a growth study, in the 2004-05 school year, there were 5,046 students. In 2012-13, there were 7,422, with today's number reaching more than 8,100 total students in the system.
"Auburn is the fastest growing school district in the past five years in the state. It's a good and bad problem to have," said Daniel Chesser, public relations specialist for the Auburn City School's board of education.
Student enrollment growth for the city of Auburn has steadily grown in recent years and trends show no intention of the growth rate slowing.
"In 10 years, we've grown by 3,000 and that's pretty significant in my opinion," DeLano said. "We've had three different studies done. Usually when you get a growth study, they will level off somewhere and you can expect for it to stop. None of the three indicates that [the growth rate] is going to slow down."
The planning stages of the new building are slightly ahead of schedule according to DeLano, but no physical progress can be seen.
"Site work could start as early as next month," said Matt Clegg, president of the board of education. "The architect is still finalizing plans for the building and we expect actual construction of the building to start later this year."
The new school will be on Samford Avenue on a property next to the Church of the Highlands.
The school board is also pursuing the possibility of offering several new curriculum options that the current high school does not offer. Some of the potential programs being discussed by the board include aviation, pre-engineering and bio-medical science programs, depending on feedback of student interest.
Future design plans also include more efficient uses of technology. For example, smart TVs, some of which could allow students a more hands-on learning experience through an interactive organic user interface that allows for human navigation and manipulation on screen.
"We want to have space be flexible to accommodate modern classroom technology," Clegg said. "So certainly we are looking for a building that will stand the test of time and have flexible space that can be adapted to how education will be delivered over the next 50 to 75 years."
DeLano and the school board are also working to keep the new building as environmentally green as possible and are seeking Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
After two well-attended community forums discussing the topic, citizens were asked to take an online survey from which two things were learned: the community only wants one high school and agreed 3,000 students in one building was too many.
"The community has pretty much stood firm that they only want one high school," DeLano said. "So we have had a lot of discussions about what happens when this high school gets full. The new high school will hold 2,200 students, but we know that by 2024, we will have a thousand students per grade level."
The current Auburn City Schools buildings will still be used in addition to the new building, but the grade levels in each will be reallocated to provide the most comfortable and efficient learning environment for the students.
"We want to stay true to the community roots; the Auburn High School tradition," Chesser said.
With the student enrollment growth rate steadily on the rise, local school board officials will have to face this issue again in the near future.
"Within the next eight years, we may have to build a second high school, but were not planning seriously on that yet," said DeLano.
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