–by Sylvania AdVantage Staff
PUBLICATION DATE: April, 2020

A new science wing along with updated science classrooms will greet Southview students as they begin the 2021 school year next August.
“The main objective is to bring Southview’s science facilities up to speed with our current course offerings,” noted Southview Principal Kasey Vens. Southview students can take six separate AP science courses that include AP chemistry, AP physics, AP biology, AP environmental science, AP seminar and AP research. “Students have been working in a lab that is original to the 1976 building along with a second lab added in the early 1990s that also is an outdated facility with outdated equipment,” Vens reported.
The new 4,331 square-foot addition will provide two additional science classrooms while maintaining the communal lab space that Southview is noted for. The existing classrooms that adjoin the labs will be enlarged as the current small classrooms present a safety concern according to Vens.
When completed, there will be a total of 12 classrooms, four of which will be self-contained and each with their own labs. The other eight classrooms will use the two shared lab spaces.
“The reconfiguration of space, designed by Buehrer Group Architects, will enable us to add demonstration tables for each of the individual classrooms. Currently, teachers have had to move their entire class into one of the two labs even if they are doing only a simple demonstration because the classrooms are so small and lack basic lab equipment,” Vens pointed out. “In addition, the new layout allows for more natural light, which will enhance the type of biology experiments that can be completed,” he added.
“The two additional classrooms will also help us to be ready to accommodate additional students in the future. For now, the science department is looking to have a room dedicated as a forensic lab, another as a general STEM (science technology, engineering, mathematics) lab and a physics lab but plans are not final,” Vens offered.
Midwest Contracting serves as the general contractor for the project anticipated to be completed in early August.