Recently it had been quite apparent to anyone driving on Valley Avenue that Handley High has been in the process of experiencing a major facelift. From the humid days of summer to the crispness of fall, the postcard image of a Winchester icon had been adorned with skeleton-like scaffolding. While this may be the only glimpse of renovation outsiders view, the students have been enduring construction since what seems like ages.
When I first began my high school journey in the fall of 2004, Handley seemed like a completely different school. The fact that I was an eager freshman surrounded by oh-so-cool upperclassmen probably had a lot to do with it, but it’s amazing how much a building’s structural layout affects one’s high school experience.
When I first entered Handley, there were abundant parking spaces (unassigned, of course), and no learning cottages. Each hallway was characterized by subject content. Throughout the day during class changes, I literally felt like I walked by every student at least once. The long-held tradition of hall decorating the night before the homecoming “Fall Day” seemed much more spirited as each class was only separated by our former meeting ground, the commons. Now, however, the field next to the tennis courts has been paved over to allow for additional parking spaces (including my prized #150). There are so many alternate paths to classes that during my day there are multiple people I never encounter.
Since the initiation of renovation classes have been relocated, construction noises have been present and students and teachers have had to adapt to altered traffic flow patterns. To me, it seemed like no progress had been made as I left school for our holiday break last December and watched the snow fall carelessly into the former business classrooms. Upon my return in January, that same hallway had been shut down and the students first stepped foot into the first phase of renovation. An impressive setup boasted large lab classrooms, a fully-loaded media center, an atrium flooded with natural light and a cantilever-based support system. It seemed as if we had entered into a completely new school, though as I walked down the new central staircase I was comforted to look through a skylight and see my former Earth Science classroom still in tact and preserved—a visual remnant of the school I had initially grown to love.
In a few months the second of three phases of renovation will be complete, exposing yet another stimulating learning environment. As a senior, I’m aware I’ll never experience the completed building in its entire splendor, but frankly I don’t mind. My classmates and I have grown accustomed to excessively crowded hallways and the constant sight of construction workers. The completion of the auditorium is the one aspect of renovation which is of importance to me, seeing as I’ve waited for the past three years to proceed down its aisles with my peers for our senior chapel. Not holding our Junior Variety show in that location last year was an upset, seeing as it had been one of Handley’s long-running traditions, but I suppose Dave Matthews was right when he said “turns out not where, but who you’re with that really matters.”
Yes, renovations are completely necessary and exciting, though still bittersweet. Once again Handley will be one of the most beautiful high schools in the nation on the exterior, as well as the interior. I feel very fortunate to have been able to have seen the initial building, weathered by generations of students who, like me, anticipated the Saturday football games in the bowl, or worried about doing well on their Biology test during second block. Now I am one of the “oh-so-cool” upperclassman (riiiight), who walks through these new halls, though I must say it saddens me these younger students will never experience the character of the carpeted floors, 1970’s chairs or dusty chalkboards we grew to know and love.
Go Judges!
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