Fifteen years after New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School leaders said they needed a new campus, officials have cut the ribbon on a $27.5 million building in the city's medical and biosciences corridor.
The school says on its website that the 129,716-square-foot, three-story building has capacity for 750 students in grades 9 through 12. The added space will enable the school to expand enrollment by as much as 49% from its existing location. The school system hopes to move to the new campus, dubbed Sci Hi, in January.
The school is designed to attract future scientists, doctors and more, Orleans Parish School Board member Nolan Marshall says. The new facility comes equipped with an outdoor learning space, science laboratories, visual art labs, advanced tech classrooms and a media center.
It also has a commons space for student interaction, space for large-scale projects, indoor and covered outdoor dining and a hybrid gymnasium-auditorium with staging area for performances and presentations.
The school's completion also marks definitive progress in the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish, a large-scale construction program initiated with $1.8 billion from FEMA after Hurricane Katrina devastated public school buildings in 2005.
The architect is Verges Rome Architects, and the builder is the McDonnel Group.
