CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In just eight short months from now the brand new $175 million Mary Carroll High School campus will be ready to welcome students.
The campus is located on the corner of Saratoga and Kostoryz, and will house many more students than the original campus. There are are also new additions that have no been seen on any other campus before.
Facilities include
- ROTC, Agriculture, Aquatics, Construction, Health Science and Dental labs.
- Fine Arts areas to include art labs, band guitar, orchestra, and choir areas, instrumental storage, large and small practice rooms.
- General classrooms, Science labs, and an open area media/library center.
- Flex learning spaces and large group instruction areas.
- Completion Gym/Arena with 3,000 seat capacity in bleachers with an additional 1,000 floor seating.
- Athletic locker rooms for boys and girls athletics, along with a training and weight room.
- Lighted football field with track, baseball and softball fields, tennis courts, and a practice field area.
- Restroom/Storage building at the athletic field and concession area.
Construction Project Manager for CCISD, John Dibala said that while the campus is coming along nicely, there were some initial side steps to navigate moving forward.
"It's been going pretty smooth you know we had some hiccups in the beginning just due to weather," Dibala said. "We had a lot of rainy weather in the beginning, when we were trying to put our foundation down."
Despite the small bumps, crews stayed on schedule and the campus is nearly 70% complete.
"But that seems to happen at every school," Dibala said. "Our contractors really rolled with the punches and put additional crews on site when needed to catch up on schedule."
Mary Carroll Principal, Robert Arredondo said he's excited that the vision CCISD created on paper, is finally coming to life.
"But today walking through, seeing the flooring, seeing the paint on the wall, seeing the basketball hoops hanging from the gym, seeing it near completion," Arredondo said.
The new campus is significantly larger than the current one making room for many future tigers to grace the halls.
"Original Carroll was designed in 1955 for about 14-15 hundred students," Arredondo said. "So this is a 450 thousand square foot print here at Carroll, we can hold up to 24 hundred."
Arredondo adds that along with more space, the campus was built for new and improved leaning capabilities.
"Every classroom, every floor, every wing has a mobile computer lab with Chromebooks and multiple collaborative spaces that a teacher or class can utilize for learning," Arredondo said.
One way the new campus stands apart from the old one, is with it's new curriculum options that students have to choose from. For example, students who show an interest in dentistry have the option to receive a dental assistant certification.
"We also have a dental program here at Carroll High School," Arredondo said. "Students will graduate with dental assisting certifications, or it can be a leapfrog into the dental world."
Soon the campus will be completely ready to welcome students and although it's a new one, with some new additions, it is still Carroll High School.
"So, that's what's exciting, offering new things, but keeping the traditions alive that make Carroll Carroll," Arredondo said.
More from 3News on KIIITV.com:
- Some Coastal Bend school districts postpone classroom return due to uptick in COVID-19 cases
- City leaders on search for new health department employees
- Where to get a free COVID-19 test in Nueces County
- Coastal Bend 9-year-old looking to clean up area beaches as her New Year's resolution
- '100% this year': CCPD breaks down efforts into solving homicide cases of 2021
- Here are the top 10 most clicked on stories of 2021
Want to send us a news tip?
Put your name and contact information below so we can get in touch with you about your story should we have questions or need more information. We realize some stories are sensitive in nature. Let us know if you'd like to remain anonymous.
If you do not have a photo/video to submit, just click "OK" to skip that prompt.