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Construction on the new building for Furr High School is set to be complete just 12 short months from now and open to students for the start of the 2017-2018 school year, project manager Michael Scott confirmed at the school’s quarterly Project Advisory Team meeting last week.
“I’m really pleased with the progress that’s been made in the first quarter,” Scott said. “Despite a couple of rain delays, we’re on schedule and we expect to stay that way.”
As of the first week of April, the job is about 22 percent complete. By mid-summer the building will be entirely enclosed.
More information on the Furr High School project
“At first the work was all underground, and we couldn’t see what they were doing out there,” said Karnetta Watts, an assistant principal at the school. “Now you can see changes every day. The anticipation is really growing.”
As part of HISD’s $1.89 billion bond program, Furr will receive a new 182,000-square-foot $55 million building to accommodate 1,300 students. The new three-story building has been designed to enhance the school’s science, technology, engineering, and arts programs and will include flexible, brightly colored learning areas that can be adjusted through moveable furniture and sliding glass doors.
Construction is expected to wrap up in the second quarter of 2017. The building will then be stocked with new furniture and technology, making way for teachers and staff to move in during the summer.
“We’ve been in the planning process for so long, but now that the building is actually going up, it’s happening a lot quicker that we realized,” said Marjorie Martinez, an assistant principal at the school. “We hear the kids talking about it. We’re all very excited.”
Once the move-in is complete, the existing structure will be abated and demolished to make room for athletics fields and additional parking.