Local News - August 2002

West Lincoln’s new look earns rave reviews

By JACQUELINE CASEY, LTN Staff Writer

August 7, 2002 - With a single word, 10th-grader Beth Barnes summed up the reaction of West Lincoln High parents and students to the school’s new look: “Wow.”

“It’s incredible. I didn’t think it would look like this,” Beth said during an open house Monday evening as she toured West’s new science wing with her mother.

“It’s wonderful that West Lincoln is finally able to do this,” said Natalie Barnes. “We’re just real proud of this, very proud.”

From the front entry to the football stadium, West has undergone a $5.5 million, two-phase face-lift.

Gone are the dark rest rooms defaced by student graffiti, gone are the overhead pipes darkening hallways, gone is the confusing front entry, that baffled visitors to the school.

Instead sparkling white and black tiles cover clean rest room walls, overhead pipes have been boxed and are hidden, an arched front entry with the school name is visible from N.C. 27 West and a brick walkway leads visitors into school administrative offices.

Halls are painted white and accented with the school colors, red and gray. A brick wall has been built leading into the football stadium and a Wall

of Honor, featuring bricks engraved with the names of West graduates is planned.

Last year Carolyn Efird’s chorus students shared the band room.

“We had to flip-flop,” she said. “With chorus we had the seats one way and when the band came in we had to switch.”

This semester her 31 students will meet in a spacious chorus only classroom at the end of the science wing.

“I think it’s really a good improvement, I like it,” said advanced chorus student Alicia Carpenter. “Our school was getting kind of run down.”

Built in 1961, this is third renovation project at West Lincoln High. The project was completed in two phases, creating a total of 19 new classrooms and updating the school throughout. In 2000, the first phase of the project, added a new math wing and cafeteria.

Work on the renovations will be complete sometime in mid-September. Until then, some teachers will share classrooms. A dedication service is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 22.

Monday, parents and students avoided boxes of floor tiles and construction debris in some halls as they made the tour.

Science teacher Steve Scercy, in his fifth year at West, believes the building improvements will boost student achievement.

“I just think it’s going to get their pride up, make them work a little harder.

And, said Scercy, West is “finally catching up with the other schools in the county.”

Scercy’s students will not only learn in the classroom, but outside in a new outdoor classroom, complete with pond.

Michael Albano and Kate Gavrilenko, a newcomer to West, stopped by to visit Scercy’s classroom. An exchange student, Kate had little to compare the new building with except for schools in her native Russia.

“It’s big,” she said. “It’s different.”

“Being my last year, it’s nice,” said Michael, a senior.

Before the tour began, West’s principal Debra Morris encouraged students to appreciate what has been accomplished at the school.

“I hope you will take pride in it because it is beautiful,” she said.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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