New year, new school. Well, sort of . . .

This past summer Beaver Area High School faced new renovations from new ceilings to the remodeling of rooms . . . Three rooms in particular: the band room, the guidance office, and the CAVE.

In addition to the rooms, a new ventilation system was installed in the middle school gym and the weight room.

Mr. Carmen Desanzo, the teacher who teaches Strength Training and middle school PE classes is thrilled about the new ventilation: “The weight room will be so much cooler during the springtime. All the students are excited about the new improvements.”

The music wing also got its fair share of renovations. The new and improved music wing no longer has carpets, but tile! During the summer, in fact, the marching band had to use the auditorium for practice due to the renovations.

However, the tile should be superior to the carpet (which had been installed in 1997) in durability and rejecting moisture.

A new guidance office calls for new counselors . . . Or is it the other way around?

“The guidance office, my room in particular, is very spacious and comforting,” explained Mr. Ambrose, one of the new guidance counselors and former middle school social studies teacher.

The guidance office adopted a more modernized look after the renovations took place with new lights, paint, floor covering, and furniture.

Everyone also is talking about the new and improved “fishbowl”, the CAVE. Students go to the CAVE for study sessions or to tutor each other out if they need help with a certain topic. Before the CAVE was the CAVE, it was a room for the students enrolled in Chinese. However, with the declining enrollment in Chinese, the room got remodeled this summer to be the CAVE.

The last of the renovations was, obviously, the new ceilings. Feel shorter in the hallway? The 200’s hall and the auditorium lobby’s dropped ceilings were all replaced over the summer.

The Little Theater also saw extensive work including a new ceiling and paint. But the biggest change was under the floor as a drain system was installed to combat the venue’s ever-rising ground water. Doing so required boring hole and cutting trenches through the concrete floor.

But don’t feel left out, 300’s and 400’s halls. Improvements are planned for your end of the building next summer.

“The staff, from what I can see, are loving the new changes,” said principal Dr. Murray, “more changes will be seen in the years to come.”