“This new school will be the most technologically advanced of any in Navy Europe, and it will be upgradeable in the future as new technologies develop,” said Capt. Earl Hampton Jr., commanding officer of Naval Station Rota. “The old school was built in the 1950s, when personal computers hadn’t been invented.”
Carl Albrecht, assistant superintendent for the Department of Defense (DOD) Dependent Schools Europe, presented the first key to the school to freshman April Rungay, whose Class of 2011 will be the first to graduate from the new school.
The $24 million Naval Facilities Engineering Command Europe and Southwest Asia (NAVFAC EURSWA) project will be built in two phases, with completion scheduled for summer 2010. The new two-story school will have 66,018 square feet of space, compared to the dimensions of the current high school, which is approximately 57,000 square feet, spread among several buildings.
Additionally, the building will employ the latest environmental and ecological advances, said Roberto Jimenez, Project Manager for UTE Elecnor Copcisa Construccion, the project’s prime contractor. The building will take advantage of natural lighting sources, and the area around the new facility will have much more green space and less asphalt around it than the current high school.
“This will be a beautiful building,” Jimenez said. “We know how important it is for learning to take place in a nice facility.”
More news:
http://www.rota-hs.eu.dodea.edu/GROUND_BREAKING.pdf
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60101&archive=true
http://www.rota-hs.eu.dodea.edu/newspaper.pdf
