The transformation of PCHS

Tamarack Road is a two-way street once again. The construction machinery around the block is gone.

The Port Chester High School property is seemingly back to normal, almost as if nothing happened—if it weren’t for the two new majestic additions now seamlessly extending from the building. With exterior bricks matching the color and pattern of the original building, newcomers looking on could have a hard time differentiating between the novel and historic.

Port Chester High School students didn’t just begin a new school year on Thursday, Sept. 2, they were welcomed into a building that in many ways has been transformed. For the last two years, since breaking ground in May 2019, the school had been an utter construction zone intent on eventually bringing new state-of-the-art facilities to the flagship school. And now, just in time for the start of the 2021-22 year, the hard work is essentially finished.

“We got the CO (Certificate of Occupancy), and once we get that the project is basically done, from an operational point,” said Port Chester Schools Assistant Superintendent for Business Philip Silano. “There’s a few things we call punch list items that are still remaining, nothing that prevented us from getting the CO, just a few things we’ve seen that we want the contractors to fix. But the project is pretty much done.”

Capping off work at Port Chester High School marks the essential end of the $80 million bond project construction—a moment years in the making. After much debate, a failed bond in December 2015, followed by even more contention, the community finally passed a bond to address overcrowding across the district in March 2017 by a mere 29 votes.

Aside from playgrounds, media centers and parking spaces, the $80 million bond was designed to add new classrooms and facilities across the district—a synthetic turf field at Edison School, eight classrooms and a gym at John F. Kennedy School, four rooms at Park Avenue School, and a gym and two classrooms at King Street School.

The largest project, Port Chester High School, was also the last to break ground. The work was designed to bring major changes to the building, from an athletics complex on the College Avenue side, to a wing of classrooms facing Tamarack Road, to a new track, field and stadium for the community to enjoy.

“It’s amazing. I can’t even think of a better word to describe it,” said Port Chester Board of Education President Chrissie Onofrio. “We have these beautiful new classrooms, they look state-of-the-art. It’s exciting to have something nice, new—it’s what our students deserve.”

Coming full circle

Onofrio walked the halls in the new and improved building with her daughter Jessie on Tuesday, Aug. 31. Though her daughter is entering her sophomore year of high school, the freshman-like novelty of the school had been hanging over her as she spent the entire 2020-21 school year remote.

“I had this moment that just hit me…when the Bond Advisory Committee started, Jessie was in fifth grade. It’s crazy when you think about it. Now she’s in 10th grade and able to actually see, enjoy and use all the work we did,” she said, referring to the group of residents who designed, proposed and advocated for the bond. She was a member before her election to the school board. “It feels like everything has come full circle. It all began with the strong group of us that were determined to see the schools get what they needed, and now for my kids to enjoy it, it’s so exciting.”

The Westmore News toured the high school with Silano and Principal Luke Sotherden on Monday, Aug. 30, just a few days before students returned to the schools to rejoice in the new facilities themselves.

“The community did a great job,” Sotherden said, gazing at the view over treetops out of a third-floor window in the new academic wing. “It’s a neat space. I can’t even imagine what it’ll look like in the fall.”

It’s the community’s bond, the principal implied. The high school wouldn’t be what it is now without the support they showed at the polls—and he’s thankful that they did.

Onofrio echoed that sentiment.

“I think the biggest thing we learned from this is getting the community involved, because look how excited the community still is all these years later,” she said. “The fact that everyone is still so excited for it, so invested in seeing it happen. Getting that community involvement, that buy-in from the community so they saw not only why we needed it, but they were involved in the process, it was critical.”

A competitive gymnasium

Port Chester High School’s new expansions touch on two major facets of education—athletics and academics.

The new structure on the College Avenue side of the building houses the new gymnasium, which in all is akin to an elaborate athletics complex.

Where the wrestling room once was, looking over the old gymnasium, now sits a weight room armed with professional equipment—well-lit by skylights installed above—that’s accessible to all through a newly installed elevator. The floor directly below, where the weight room was once positioned, has transformed into locker rooms for visiting competitors.

Designed with the ability to seal off from the rest of the school, the gymnasium and adjacent lobby—adorned with aesthetically appealing light fixtures and lined with display cases that will soon feature Rams accolades and memorabilia—makes for a space that’s “up to date and comparative athletics wise,” Sotherden said.

“We can host big events and bring the community in the building and watch the kids compete,” he said, calling attention to the concession stand with multi-use interior and exterior windows. Holding tournaments, sectional and regional games at the school, he added, will bring in money through concession sales that benefit the booster clubs and student senate.

The gymnasium itself has bleacher seating with the ability to hold over half of the high school student body and features three full size basketball courts on the floor.

“We really tried to make this place friendly in every aspect. Not just for athletics, but physical education classes,” Sotherden said. “Every kid has physical education in their schedule; it’s just as valuable as any other course here.”

“If you take a look at this place, it says Port Chester everywhere; PC, blue and white, it’s everywhere. That’s pride in your building. When kids feel like they’re cared about, they start caring about the school and they’ll treat this place as special as we want them to treat it,” he later continued. “Things like this can really transform the school spirit, that school pride. And this helps the physical education department, gives them a great space, a new space, to work with kids and inspire them.”

The future of academics

Around the corner, on Tamarack Road, an unrecognizable sight can be seen. Whereas two years ago passersby saw a grand staircase leading to the school’s back entrance, now a building expansion—an elevated two-story wing stretching right to the edge of the street—prevails.

Though the design has been debatable among members of the community, the needed is largely unrefuted.

“It’s 22 additional classrooms and we’ve been filling them right up, that’s for sure,” Sotherden said. “We really need them.”

The new academic wing—encompassing the entire backside of the building, connected on both ends of the original school—has an array of specialty and general classrooms designated with true modernization.

New instrumental and choral rooms will give young musicians a specific place to rehearse that they’ve never had before—equipped with soundproof walls and practice rooms for privacy. The art rooms were designed with quality lighting and space to maximize creativity; the science labs are stocked with new equipment and flexible furniture. Sotherden is particularly happy with the space providing for the school’s life skills program, which is returning to their campus after spending years at Port Chester Middle School.

With new spaces came the need to hire new staff, Assistant Superintendent for Business Silano said—both in the realm of teaching and operations. To man the new wing, Sotherden said the district hired two teachers, two teaching assistants and two teacher aides for the life skills program alone. Beyond that, they created new teaching positions for social studies, computer science, theater, English, science and special education. Four new hall monitors and two new custodians were also employed.

The windowed hallways connecting the two buildings comprising the wing may be the new addition’s most distinguished feature. While inside, a look one way gives a perfect view of Port Chester High School’s iconic clocktower, while the other overlooks the trees on the way to White Plains.

“It’s really a great sight,” Sotherden said. “We’re going to be catching kids in here looking out the window all the time.”

It’s a new era

Reflecting on the past few years, school board president Onofrio said as exciting as the new and improved high school is, she hopes the community doesn’t forget how much has happened to the other district schools as well.

Education starts from the ground up, and with modernized elementary spaces, students will be more prepared to learn their way to the flagship than ever before.

“I’m just really excited for all of our students to be able to use these spaces and for our teachers just to have these amazing facilities,” Onofrio said. “People focus on the high school because it was the most noticeable and biggest project. But it’s really all the projects that have been done in the last few years. It’s exciting that it’s all coming to fruition now, just in time when we need it most.”

“It’s funny because it’s the end of an era and also the beginning of the new era,” she continued. “With a new building, more funding and a new superintendent, the stars have aligned. It’s a really exciting time in Port Chester.”