Freshman Tyvauntae Delony, 15, walks through a hallway at Seton Catholic College Preparatory High School on Tuesday morning. After seven years in a much smaller space, the school unveiled its new campus this fall. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Don’t ask Ed Little about Seton Catholic College Preparatory High School’s new campus if you have anywhere else to be.
The school principal’s enthusiasm for the subject is infectious — if a bit long-winded.
“This building is phenomenal,” the beaming Little said, sitting in his new office at the campus at 9000 N.E. 64th Ave. in the Barberton area. “This was built with kids in mind.”
The high school’s 173 students at long last are enjoying their new school building after the school had leased a much smaller space for the past seven years.
“We were on top of everybody,” Little said.
The new building, full of natural light, is 44,000 square feet, three times larger than the previous space. Then there’s the features students at larger schools might take for granted: a gym, locker rooms, a common space for activities, science laboratories and the ability for each student to have their own iPad.
“It’s made that sense of community,” school President Tricia Roscoe said of the new space.
The school, the only Catholic high school in the state south of Olympia, is in the midst of a $20 million capital campaign to continue to support its growing student body. To date, the school has raised more than $10 million, Roscoe said.
“We’ve been very blessed,” she said.
The current school can accommodate 250 students, but hookups are already in place to add an additional wing for up to 250 more students, Development Director Craig Schaefer said. There’s also plans to add more athletic facilities, including a track and a football stadium.
“You can have more space, more classrooms, more activities,” Schaefer said.
And students are already using the space to its potential. Recently, a group of robotics students — a new class the school is offering — surprised Little by driving their robot into his office and around the space, he said.
He was struck not only by the robot, he said, but by the students’ ability to direct it to zoom around his office. That could never have happened in the school’s previous small space, Little said.
“That’s what they couldn’t do, what we didn’t have the space to do,” he said.
Students agree that the school has afforded them new opportunities.
“It’s like being home,” 16-year-old junior Missica Derhalli said in the school’s lunch room. The student body couldn’t fit in the cramped cafeteria space in the previous school.
“I love it here,” said 15-year-old sophomore Josh Freitag. “I’m proud to be a student here.”
Morning Briefing Newsletter
Get a rundown of the latest local and regional news every Mon-Fri morning.
