Board to address technology academy’s future

Teresa Hinds

Monday, Nov. 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A study offering six options for expanding Advanced Technologies Academy will be discussed Tuesday by the School Board.

Options 1 and 2 call for building a comprehensive high school and keeping ATA's business and computer magnets within the new school.

Option 1 would add 182,079 square feet, house 2,700 students and cost $30.9 million.

Option 2 carries a $26.6 million price tag for an additional 156,923 square feet to house 2,000 students.

Option 3 is to build a downsized high school with ATA as a magnet within the school. This would mean an enrollment of 1,250 students. The addition of 98,628 square feet would cost $16.7 million.

Option 4 would expand ATA by 65,587 square feet and add a full-size gym plus 20 classrooms. The cost would be $11.1 million.

Option 5 calls for building a separate small high school on 12.3 acres adjacent to ATA. It would accommodate 800 students in 147,463 square feet. The cost would be $25 million.

Faith Lutheran School now sits on the 12.3 acres. The school district purchased the land and building in July, with the understanding that Faith Lutheran may lease back the land for two years, or until it moves into its new quarters.

Option 6 calls for remodeling Faith Lutheran to add eight to 10 classrooms that would house up to 300 students. At $1.5 million, this is the least expensive option.

Only two plans, Options 4 and 5, have the support of ATA's principal, Michael Kinnaird.

Option 4 is Kinnaird's first choice.

"It would expand the school as it is and open up more seats for students to experience the unique educational environment at ATA," Kinnaird said.

Kinnaird would also be amenable to building a separate, smaller high school on the adjacent land.

"If that high school and the academy are separate, I have no problem with that," he said.

No matter which option is chosen, Kinnaird's main concern is that "we won't be in the situation of compromising what we have in place right now that has not really evolved to its full potential."

"I think ATA has to be a separate school to maintain the integrity of the magnet component," he said.

Kinnaird also said the amount of available acreage could be a problem to any of the plans that would bring another school and more students to the site.

Most full-size high schools sit on 40 acres. ATA occupies 19 acres and if land from the Faith Lutheran site, 12.34 acres, is added to any of the building options, the site would be a little more than 8 acres short of what most standard high schools have.

School Board member Judy Witt doesn't want to see any changes made to the magnet school.

"It should stay the way it is," she said. "We constructed it strictly for the design of that magnet."

Although Witt said she would not support any changes to ATA, she would support a middle-school magnet feeder to be built on the Faith Lutheran site.

The School Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Education Center, 2832 E. Flamingo Road.

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