Members of the community and school corporation gathered at Lake Central High School on Aug. 1 to witness the groundbreaking for the new school’s construction project.

“[The new high school] is a huge upgrade. You’re going to have an entirely new facility. It’ll really bring in the 21st century,” Forrest Wagner, building engineer, said.

With the construction of the new high school comes a few challenges that students and staff will have to face.

“Upfront, there are several challenges. We lost the portable classrooms, so we had to adjust areas of the building into the academic environment, like the north commons of the Freshman Center. There are new temporary classrooms there,” Principal Robin Tobias said.

The new temporary classes, T-Hall, can be found near the band room in the Freshman Center.

“I think our students will be resilient. They will evade, they rule, so I’m not worried about that too much. I will tell you that adding those temporary classrooms in the lower freshman center is going to increase the congestion in that part of the building. Really, the part of the building that used to be the smoothest flowing will now be crowded, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel once we adjust,” Dr. Larry Veracco, superintendent, said.

Along with added classrooms, students and staff will have to adapt to the limit of parking spaces for the school year. Juniors will not be able to get parking passes this year due to the construction in the back of the school.

“Addressing our parking needs [has been a challenge]. Due to construction, we have a limited amount of parking space. All of our challenges are temporary of course as we get ready for the new high school,” Tobias said.

Through the challenges students and staff will have to conquer throughout the construction, the final outcome will be rewarding.

“There will come a point where you’ll just want it to be done because of the inconvenience, but anytime you get something new, whether it be a bike or a car, it’s exciting. For us, it’s something for four thousand students and one hundred-sixty teachers to benefit from,” Veracco said.

The construction of the academic building should be completed by the beginning of the 2013 school year.

“We are certainly going to have improved aesthetics to the school. In terms of the initial first impression, the visual appearance will be something to inspire people,” Tobias said.

In the meantime, progress of the construction can be viewed on the school’s website via weekly video updates.