The second floor of the Newton-Conover City Schools Administration building hasn’t been used as a school in almost 30 years.  While the lower levels were converted into office space for school system leaders, the upper floor was left untouched, except for using the cafeteria for storage.  Now, it will become the new site for the Newton-Conover Health and Science High School.

“Here we are, walking back in and turning the lights back on,” Kristin Lampe, science teacher at The Newton School, said.

On Monday, the Catawba County Board of Commissioners allocated Newton Conover City Schools $178,904 from the 2006-07 lottery proceeds to renovate the second floor of the administration building.

“It’s going to be nice to have kids back in that building,” NCCS Superintendent Dr. Barry Redmond, Ed.D., said.

The new school year will begin on Aug. 25 with its largest freshman class of 70 students, bringing student enrollment at The Newton School from 65 to 110, Redmond said.  Student applications increased after the school system opened enrollment to Hickory Public Schools and Catawba County Schools.

“For a while we felt like the best kept secret in Catawba County,” Lampe said.

Work on the building will begin by June 1.  The building will require new drop ceilings, new paint, heating and air conditioning, carpet and windows.

The news couldn’t come at a better time.  Willard said the school recently received the results from its Gates evaluation, which cited problems with the overcrowding that need to be addressed immediately.  The Gates Foundation, which provided grant funding for the school evaluates the school annually.

“If I have to go to the board, I have to scoot people over,” she said.

In transforming the space back into a school, NCCS will lose its storage space, so the county granted an additional $155,000 to purchase a 12,000-square foot warehouse, which will give the system space to move in The Newton School. Those materials, which include textbooks, maintenance supplies, and furniture, will be moved to a warehouse located two blocks from the administration building near First Presbyterian Church in Newton.  He said school officials are already in the process of moving items out of the cafeteria.  They will close on the warehouse property on May 15.

The Newton School has been using four classrooms in the 4,000 square foot facility, located in the masonry building behind Newton-Conover High School.  The administration building has eight available classrooms on the upper level, six of which will be renovated over the summer.  Willard said the classrooms there are twice the size of the current classrooms.

After The Newton School moves to its new location, it will also have a cafeteria, a gymnasium and a computer lab with 20 computers.

“It’ll be a bigger place, like our own school,” sophomore student Ty Brown said.

Redmond said the administration building will provide adequate space until the student body reaches 250 students.  Ideally, he said he would like to move The Newton School into Thornton Elementary after the school system is able to build a new middle school.  He expects the school to reach that threshold within two to three years.

“It’s not going to be a question of why did we spend all this money,” Redmond said. “It needed to be done anyway.”

Dr. Janice Davis, former state deputy superintendent, who now works for New School Projects said that Newton Conover Health and Science High School is poised to be the best new school project in the state, Redmond said.