Compton (California) district celebrates completion of new high school

The Compton (California) district is preparing to open a $225 million, 31-acre high school campus.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the district staged a ribbon-cutting for the new Compton High School. The high school's new home wil welcome students later this year after six years in temporary quarters at a former middle school.

The school includes a performing arts center supported by a $10 million donation from musician and Compton native Andre “Dr. Dre” Young. The library has no books; it’s all digital. Classrooms feature an expanse of windows and sliding glass doors. 

The new campus replaces a 1930s-era school.

Compton High’s 1,600-person student body is 84% Latino, 15% Black and 1% Pacific Islander.

The new school has a culinary classroom with professional-grade stoves, ovens and refrigeration.

The swimming pool has sensors in the wall to record when a swimmer completes a lap or race. The weight room is enormous, and there’s an separate fitness room with different equipment. A treatment room has ice machines for full-body ice baths.

The cafeteria is organized like a small college student union, with a chess table, foosball tables and pingpong.

Classrooms are set up with long electronic cables suspended from the ceiling — so power for a computer will never be far away even if chairs and tables are reconfigured.

The library is meant to be noisy: It’s a lounge-like area with no walls or doors. Classrooms are organized like high-tech college lecture halls — teachers don't have their own rooms; Instead, each teacher has a desk and a computer in a separate “collaboration” room.

The design also incorporates extensive natural light; doors are made of glass and adjacent to other panes of glass.