Charger News

Baxter: New high school to relieve overcrowding

Josh Mattingly, Charger Staff

Imagine, for a moment, if the current population of Cookeville High School, in addition to seventh and eighth grade students, still held its classes in the old Avery Trace building. Despite the obvious overcrowding problems, contemplate the other troubles a school filled past capacity would face. Over-flowing classrooms, the inability to accommodate for the growing population, and the difficulty that would be involved in feeding the mass of students. This feeble list only begins to scratch the surface of problems encountered when too many students are packed into too small of a facility.

These problems are dealt with daily at Baxter’s Upperman High. Every day, students in grades 7-12 pack themselves into the extremelyovercrowded and overwhelmed school.

It is because of this that a brand new Upperman High is in its final stages of completion. While it may still lack a few finishing touches, the school will open its doors to students when they return from Christmas break on Jan 4. In its present state the school is 90% complete, and is receiving finishing touches such as floor tile, paint, and ceiling tile.

Inside the school is nothing less than state of the art, and with a price tag of 19.8 million dollars, it should be!
The single-leveled school is arranged in a horseshoe shape with a 600 foot main hallway which hosts a variety of educational environments.

“It’s quite a place,” says Dr. Martin. “The environment will be unlike any other.”

That is an understatement. Every teacher will be issued a lap top and will have the ability to be on-line without the use of a cable. No less than six computer labs are employed by each of the school’s departments to further the education of Baxter’s youth. The school also features an appropriately sized and very useful library, which hosts a variety of smaller rooms, each with multiple applications.

In addition to all of these technological accessories, several different types of science labs, language labs, special education classrooms, auditorium, gym, spacious cafeteria, vocational rooms, wellness center, and a multi-room counseling center are contained within the cutting-edge facility.

The school has a core capacity of well over 1000 students which will relieve the tremendous overcrowding problem faced at Upperman. To relieve the same problem at Baxter Elementary, fifth and sixth grade will be moved to join seventh and eighth graders at the old Upperman building which will be renamed Cornerstone Middle School.

This presents a new task, however, because not only do students have to make the move between schools, but teachers and faculty must also trek across town. If everything goes according to plan, teachers should be settled into their new classrooms by Jan 3. Students will arrive the next day-the day after Christmas break.

“We look forward to opening,” Dr. Terry Anderson remarks. “This has been a need for a long time.”

Baxter pupils will leave the present Upperman for the last time to enjoy their much anticipated break and return to a brand new, state of the art Baxter high school.
Upperman Principal, Jerry Boyd comments, “We realize the building doesn’t make the school; that’s the job of myself, the principal, and the teachers, but we’re very proud of it.”

This seems to be the general feeling of everyone associated with this addition to the Putnam County school system. The new Upperman High School in Baxter will be an excellent educational facility worthy of everyone’s approval.