A New Era Begins at Wheeler High

"Do you know where you're going?"

Parent volunteer Abby Shiffman repeated that question over and over again on Wednesday, as Wheeler High School students began a new school year in a new school building. 

Shiffman was on hand to direct students to classrooms, the guidance office and other components of the new two-story building, which was built at a cost of nearly $20 million. 

For the last two years, Wheeler's students had been cramped in more than 30 trailers that have now been removed from the school grounds. 

On Wednesday, students were walking the hallways with maps in hand, as volunteers like Shiffrin, staff and teachers were pointing them in the right direction.

Wheeler first opened in 1965 with a single-story main building that grew to be vastly overcrowded by the mid-1970s, when nearby Walton High School opened.

Most of the main public areas in the new building are located in a compact area near the main entrance. 

Across from the administration building is the media center, and just beyond the lobby is a sparkling new cafeteria with six food court-style stations.

Classrooms dominate the second level of the building, which connects with the existing gym and a long-standing two-story classroom addition, and with easy access to the Wheeler STEM magnet school. 

The morning homeroom and first class period were a little chaotic, according to energetic principal David Chiprany, who was able to exhale a little by mid-morning.

"It's been good," he said, clasping his hands in the lobby. "It's gone all right."

During a break before the first lunch shift, Shiffman was ecstatic as she absorbed the new surroundings and explained the excitement in the Wheeler school community.

"It's a revitalization," said Shiffrin, whose son attends Wheeler and who has a daughter at the performing arts magnet at Pebblebrook High School. "We have a diverse student body here. It's real world."

And on a personal note, she said: "It's nice that we've got this now before my child graduates."

The entire reconstruction project isn't quite done. Work continues on a new bus lane that is expected to be completed by January. For now, it's a gravel driveway where the old gym and administration building once stood. 

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place on Aug. 20.

By then, all the working parts at the new Wheeler should be coming together. In the new cafeteria, frying machines weren't quite ready to handle the first day of school.

"We've got no French fries today," Chiprany said. "Imagine that. High school students with no French fries."