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Source: Board of Education, Comprehensive Educational Facilities Plan (CEFP)

JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL

Route 1, Box 83

Shenandoah Junction, WV 25442

(304) 725-8491

 

 

Located between Charles Town and Shepherdstown on Route 230 in the north central region of the county, Jefferson High School is the only high school serving Jefferson County.  Constructed on only one level, this facility is a mammoth, sprawling complex that now accommodates almost 1600 students in Grades 10 through 12.  Current enrollment is taxing this purpose-built facility; four portable classroom units are in place on the campus which also includes playfields and a football stadium.  Staffing the building are 100 teaching professionals, four principals, five counselors, and six instructional aides along with additional custodial support and food service personnel.  The library has almost 16,000 volumes and has a fully automated card catalog.

 

 

Current Use:  Serving all High School students, this facility houses a broad based curriculum encompassing a wide variety of academic disciplines, vocational education and specialized programs.  Current enrollment is higher than at any point in the last ten years with the 10th Grade now totaling 584 students, the 11th Grade-520 students, and the 12th Grade-487 students.  A total of seven classrooms are dedicated to Special Education.  Four additional classrooms in portable classroom units house the Success program that is specially designed for Students-at-risk for school drop-out.

 

 

General:  This facility is extremely crowded.  Congestion of student movement in the hallways is an hourly problem.  The core facilities in terms of the cafeteria and library are undersized and the facility has only one gymnasium which must accommodate two physical education classes at all times.

 

The building is organized so that core facilities – vocational lab space, (home economics and agricultural science), cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium – are located at one end of the building.  In the opposite direction, academic spaces are grouped in three separate instructional wings according to subject area:  Section A, English and history; Section B, science and art; Section C, business, mathematics and foreign language.  The library is at one end of Section B. 

 

The entire structure is linked by one corridor connecting all five wings; this straight corridor is an unbelievable 720 feet long, more than the length of two football fields end to end.  Perpendicular to this main street are the five wing corridors which are each over 300 feet.  At the junction of two are locker areas, and at the junction of the third is the cafeteria.  This circulation system intensifies the crowded environment of the school.  The four major junctions of intersecting student traffic are major bottlenecks.  It is sometimes literally impossible to reach destinations within the allotted time for class change, since a student may be required to walk as much as one-fourth mile through very crowded hallways.

 

The cafeteria is totally inadequate for the population served.  The number of students to be served is far greater than the seats available at any lunch period.  Administrative space appears to be adequate, although there is insufficient space for teacher work rooms.  Accommodations for many specialized instruction areas are adequate.  These include the band, home economics, agricultural science and business education. 

 

Unfortunately, however, most of the basic instructional spaces are small for current class sizes.  Class enrollments are routinely at 28 and above, especially in core subject areas.  Facilities for science are extremely tight, in-as-much as science rooms have been designed for 24 student stations only.  Of the eight science labs in the building, only two are adequate; six are undersized and lack up-to-date furniture and equipment.

 

 

Site:  Although the property on which the school is located appears to be of adequate size, the exterior spaces developed for staff parking, student parking, playing fields and stadium are undersized.  It is difficult to accommodate the forty buses that service the school in the designated area which is also utilized for staff parking.

 

 

Building Organization and Configuration:  The one-story configuration of this facility functions very poorly for the current population of almost 1600 students.  The distances between instructional areas are too great and the grouping of academic classroom space at one end and specialized instructional resource and support areas at the other end exacerbates the problem of sprawling distance.  Corridor sizes are also problematic for the current population of the building.  The congestion is enormous.

 

 

Potential for Continued Use:  This facility currently serves only three high school grades even though class sizes are already beyond the capacity of many of the individual instructional spaces.  The sprawling footprint and excessive distances within the building strongly suggest it would be inappropriate to expand the facility further.  This conclusion is reinforced by the congestion in the corridors.  Although not properly organized in terms of the distribution of instructional spaces, this facility does have potential for use to serve a smaller student population either as a three grade middle school, a two grade high school, or a smaller 9-12 comprehensive high school.

 

SPACE  INVENTORY  SUMMARY

Jefferson High School

Jefferson County Schools

 

 

 

 

RATED

 

SPACE/ROOM

No.

CAPACITY

COMMENT

General Purpose Classrooms

  41

    @25=1025

 

Seminar/Small Classrooms

    1

    @15=15

 

Large Group Lecture

    0

    @     = *NR

 

Relocatable CRs

    4

    @25= *NR

SUCCESS program

Special Education CRs

    8

    @12=96

 

Spec Educ Resource Rooms

    0

    @12= *NR

 

Itinerant Teacher Rooms

    0

    @12= *NR

 

Art  Labs

    2

    @25=50

 

Music/Band  Rooms

    2

    @35=70

 

Computer Labs

    1

    @25=25

used for math/computer science

Science Labs

    8

    @25=200

at least half are undersized

Business Education Labs

    4

    @25=100

4 labs equipped with computers

Family/Consumer Economics Labs

    3

    @25=75

 

Technology Education Lab/CR

    3

    @25=75

 

Drivers Education Lab

    1

    @35=35

 

Physical Education/Gymnasium

    1

    @70=70

difficult for instruction to 2 class of 35 ea

Auxillary/Adaptive Use Gym

    0

    @25=

 

Library

    1

    @25= *NR

small; insufficient seating & work space

Auditorium

    1

    @       = *NR

adequate

Cafeteria/Kitchen

    1

    @       = *NR

seriously undersized

Gen. Office

    2

    --     --

1 for administrative; 1 for attendance

Principal

    4

    --     --

 

Assistant Principal

    3

    --     --

 

Guidance Suite

    1

    --     --

cramped; little space for resource

material display

Conference Room

    1

    --     --

 

Nurse/Clinic

    1

    --     --

in main office

Faculty Lounge

 

    --     --

 

Faculty Workroom

 

    --     --

 

ROSTERED Teaching Stations

  75

             =1836

Total Capacity

 

 

             =1560

RATED CAPACITY @85% Utilization

 

*NR =  Non-Rostered space: includes special subject, enrichment, and support areas, as well as
portable classrooms units which do not provide permanent capacity.