DOVER (WJER) - Dover school officials are making arrangements to show off the old and new high schools with separate events in the next couple of months. 

Superintendent Carla Birney says they are still aiming to move students into the new high school in the first or second week of March, with a public open house sometime right before then. Birney says even though the new building is in the final stages, you’re actually looking at the back of it when you drive along Tuscarawas avenue.

“Our folks won’t really see the front of the new high school until the old high school’s down because the front door is kind of at the back corner of the Fifth Street wing, so it’s gonna be kind of an unveiling at some point when this old building goes down,” she says.

Birney says one change in the new building, students will have more choices…

“In our cafeteria, you’ll see different seating options, different groupings. Our cafeteria right now is four kids to a table and that’s it and there’s no light, and our new cafeteria will have a lot of natural light. The seatings and classrooms will be variable,” she says. 

Birney says the new school is built for collaboration...

“So on top of the flexibility, we’ve got spaces where students can work in small groups, they can work by themselves. Our classrooms have doorways, some of them in between classrooms, and then we have extended learning areas in the hallway, and the classroom has a big garage door that will go about and the teacher and the classes can actually spill out into the hallway,” she explains.

The district is also hosting Celebration Day to check out the old high school one last time Saturday, February 15th, from 11 am to 4 with tours, concessions and games.  

WJER RADIO