Northwest Academy Adds Building

(The new space is still under construction)

Next year, Northwest Academy will move most of its high school classes into a new building where the teachers and the students will have more room to work.

Northwest Academy has a lease to the second floor of the Century Plaza building, 1208 SW 13th Ave, with the hope to eventually buy it. Head of school Mary Folberg is excited because she can finally give the teachers what they want.

“Our teachers are saints, they’ve been teaching in situations where they don’t have adequate space, they don’t have any control over their own classrooms they can’t hang things on the walls, they can’t paint the room in the color they want it,” Folberg said. “So many things and yet they’ve been doing such a superb job of teaching and exciting their students in their subject matters, it’s just time that they had adequate facilities and adequate equipment to do their jobs well.”

Folberg is excited because if they buy the new building the space restrictions of the current buildings no longer exist.

“More than anything, this school has to be in a permanent facility and our teachers and students have to have room,” Folberg said. “We’ve not ever had that and I am ecstatic and excited about finding a piece of property in Portland with two different buildings on it with space around it. We can put in a garden, we can put in a gym, we can do what we want to do and have room for all of classrooms, all of our studios, and have our theater all in one place.”

Many of the teachers are very excited to have space where they can fully expand their ideas without being in a cramped classroom.

“There’s hardly any storage, there’s no windows, it’s a cramped space for big class sizes,” Julie Ellington, English teacher, said about her current teaching facility.

Students are also ready to have a new facility.

“I think it’ll be a nice change considering that the high school is growing, but it will take some adjusting to,” Safia Williams, a junior, said.

Currently, the new space is under construction. Walls have been knocked down to make it more spacious. It has an open room where the reception counter will be with a waiting room. There are open spaces for a new dance room and there are many other various classrooms for high school classes. Many of the rooms will have windows besides the dance and choir rooms.

It is also necessary to get a better building because class sizes are growing. In the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 121 students in the school and next year, just five years later, there will be 190-195, students, an increase of 70 students.

Many students and faculty at the school agree that the new, bigger space is a much needed improvement to help the learning and social environment.

“I’m glad for the new space because last years’ sophomores did not have windows and now they will,” Ryan Richter, a freshman, said.