Students and Staff Excited About the New Renovations

There have been a lot of changes at Greendale High School this school year and one of those has been the renovations to the building that occurred over the summer. Greendale School District spent over $33.8 million over the past year doing renovations in all of the schools and the highlights for Greendale High School are a new drive in driveway and parking lot at the front of the school for easy access for parents to pick up their kids as well as a new music wing, and new Commons area, also known as the IMC. 

Another change was a new gym entrance for the athletes and fans to enter. Athletic Director Jared Galante feels the new entrance was definitely needed. ”The new entrance near the Main Gym was a part of the District Referendum that focused on the Safety & Security of our buildings.  With the previous entrance, many visitors would wander the building looking for the gym or pool as the entrance was so far away from both locations,” he said. “In the winter months, there was also a hazard with people parking in the lower lot and then having to walk up the icy path to attend an evening event.” 

Galante also explained that the new entrance is now more visitor-friendly and offers a close entrance to the Main Gym from the large lower parking lot. “This new entrance also allows the District to close off other parts of the school building in the evening while an athletic event is going on,” he said. “This helps provide an added level of safety and security to our entire high school building, and give an opportunity for these other spaces to be cleaned in the evening and not reoccupied until the students arrive the next day.”

The gym itself also received some upgrades. The walls have been painted and the basketball court has been improved because it used to have dead spots all over the floor. “The gym floor is still the existing floor that has always been at the high school. Two summers ago, however this floor was completely sanded down to bare wood and refinished and painted,” Galante said. “ When the floor was refinished, the contractors also filled well over 100 dead spots that existed below the courts surface. This helped even out the surface and has made for an overall better playing surface for all sports. In years to come we will likely look to fill even more dead spot areas to further increase the overall feel of the floor.”

The floor also was reconfigured so that it can hold more events. “The current set-up of the floor now allows for our facility to run three volleyball courts horizontally, and 3 basketball courts horizontally as well. The overall, redesign was focused on getting the most use out of the current square footage that exists in our gym.  Our teams are now able to better utilize the space to better fit the needs of their programs,” Galante said. 

With music being a very popular program at the high school the music wing received major upgrades which the students are very excited about.  “I like the green room for the theater or the new Band room, or soundproofing the practice rooms,” senior William Mlenar said.

One of the biggest issues with the old band room was that it did not have enough space for the amount of members. “We had such a hard time getting around with very little space before and now that we have more it’s made a huge improvement,” junior Maddie Brown said.

Students feel that the changes were necessary. ” I believe every room in the wing wasn’t quite meeting the needs of each class, in terms of space and logistics. They were all a bit too small for everyone to sit comfortably, and it was hard to find space to store instruments and sheet music,” senior Quentin Rojahn said.

Principal Steve Lodes is very pleased with how the renovations turned out. “Everything turned out great, and there are some exciting and convenient new spaces for students and our community. I just wish we were all here together to use them! My favorite thing is the new IMC and Bookstore area. It is a great new look as you walk in the main doors at GHS,” he said.

Speaking of the new IMC, the space was made more open concept, and includes the school store and seating area with high to;p tables. In addition, there is a space attached to the IMC which can be closed off by sliding glass doors that has a large conference room with 3 TVs as well as 6 smaller conference rooms, each with his own TV.” I like the more comfortable seating around the IMC,” senior Mallory Potters said.

Junior Shirley Runkel also really likes the new space. “I really like the study area; it will be a great place to go after school and do homework,” she said.