Sneak Peek: Inside the New North Little Rock High School
It’s a great year to be a Charging Wildcat! North Little Rock High School will show off many new facilities and amenities in the 2015-2016 school year, including the brand-new stadium and track which opened for football practices in July.
When school begins this month, two of the four new academic buildings will also be ready for students, and the remainder of the new high school buildings will open throughout the academic year.
Our curiosity got the best of us and we had to see the progress for ourselves, so Little Rock Family took a tour in the final days of July. It's apparent that the new high school is designed for modern students: The environment encourages project and group learning, as well as collaborative lessons between classes and teachers.
During our tour, North Little Rock School District Superintendent Kelly Rodgers emphasized how the school is built for future growth and designed to evolve with teaching methods. "I believe it will truly make a difference in the level of education," Rodgers said of the new, state-of-the-art building and its features.
When construction is completed, the campus will have four academic buildings with labs, media centers, and career and tech centers that instruct students on digital animation, entrepreneurship, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, medical technology, television broadcasting and more. (Cool fact: On football game days, broadcast journalism students will run the cameras that feed the scoreboard's digital display.)
Students will also be able to enjoy a new commons and cafeteria, performing arts building with an auditorium that accommodates more than 1,000 audience members, a black box theater, modern theater classrooms, and space for band, choir and orchestra.
Plus, the physical education and sports teams will have a new practice gym with multiple courts and a walking track on the second level.
The new North Little Rock High School is part of North Little Rock School District's Capital Improvement Plan, which includes five new elementary schools, four renovated elementary schools, a renovated preschool and the new high school. For more information, visit NLRSD.org.