Saxony Lutheran High School will soon be expanding.
In a news conference on Jan. 24, the school announced that they will soon begin construction on a new Agriculture Science Multipurpose building in the spring.
The building will be built near the school’s track and soccer field.
“Agriculture has been a very important program for our school since we started it in the 2014-2015 school year,” Saxony Lutheran Principal Mark Ruark said. “The teachers we have had over the years have done a tremendous job making do with what they had. We have known for a while that we needed to add a shop area to expand the program and do everything we want to do curriculum-wise.”
Ruark said the building will be a big help to the program because at the moment the classes are held in a regular classroom and have to do any projects or demonstrations either outside or off-campus. The building was made possible through generous donations from parents and alumni.
“It’s exciting time at Saxony that we have gotten to the point where we need a building like this and that we have the support of the community,” Ruark said.
The building will not just be for the Agriculture department, as it will also have multiple purposes. Ruark said that it will have a kiln for Saxony’s ceramics department, extra classroom space for the art department and STEM classes. There will be storage space for soccer, track and field, and the newly developed football program. There will be restrooms as well close by for home soccer games and track meets, so that spectators won’t have to walk over between the baseball and softball fields.
“We try to make sure that everything we do has multiple uses and purposes,” Ruark said.
Ruarks believes the addition of the new building will make the school a new attractive option for prospective students.
“Anytime you expand your facilities, it becomes another reason why families will look at a school and think that’s where they want their kids to learn.”
Saxony Lutheran is currently in the process of reaching out for requests for qualifications for a contractor. Ruark is hopeful to have a contactor in the near future and break ground on the new facility in the spring. Depending on weather, the construction should take somewhere around six months.
“Once we hire a contractor we should have a better estimation of what our timeline is,” Ruark said. “If we could have it operational sometime in the 2024-2025 school year, I would call that a success.”
