Renovations Expand Plaza, Main Buildings

Over the summer, Northwest Academy renovated the Plaza and Main buildings in order to accommodate new students.

“There are a lot more high schoolers now than before,” Scott Kerman, Assistant Head of School and Director of Curriculum and Instruction, said. “We wanted to provide more space for lunch and for studying and just to make it a nicer overall space.”

This year, 212 students are enrolled at Northwest Academy, an increase from 194 students last year. One hundred and seven of those students are high schoolers, which is 20 more than last year. The high school will continue to grow with the addition of 15 new students in the 2016-2017 school year.

“We’ve been working to increase the size of this school for about the last five or six years,” Lainie Ettinger, Director of Admissions and Marketing, said. “We started with the sixth grade, adding a section of 15 students and we built up through the middle school and now through the high school. So this year there’s just one class left – our seniors – that are single section.”

Even more new students are expected next year and students are excited for the new additions. However some also feel that the school is running out of room.

“It’s cool, I guess, that the school has a lot of interest, but it’s also really crowded,” Harper Jensen, a sophomore, said.

However, Kerman assures that there is plenty of space for the new students.

“I think we definitely can accommodate the students coming in,” Kerman said.

Modifications were also made to Nathan Lucas’ media lab.

“They put in new carpeting and we rewired things so that we could turn the desks so that they were all facing the same direction and we’re able to provide additional space for more computers,” Kerman said.

The renovations were directed by a committee of school staff.

“I worked together with a number of other people: Wendy Bell, Mary [Folberg], John Storhm and David Bliss,” Kerman said. “A couple of us worked on designing a counter space for [the library] and David Bliss built the counter. Heidi Kirkpatrick hung all of the art and photographs on the wall, but it was really a team effort of trying to make the space as great as we could.”

Feelings about the new developments, especially the library, have been mixed.

“I think they were unnecessary,” Elle Biesemeyer, a junior, said. “Everything looked fine how it was, nothing has changed.”

However, some are positive about the new look.

“It’s pretty cool,” Jensen said. “It’s kind of surprising.”