Saturday was a day of celebration for the Blair Oaks R-2 School District community.
More than 100 community members went to recognize the opening and tour the new Blair Oaks High School building.
Students and staff moved into the new school, located on Falcon Lane in Wardsville -- across the street from the current middle school -- at the start of the school year. It accommodates grades 9-12.
While operational, the building in its current state is in the first of two phases of the project.
The total cost is $19 million, but bonding capacity limited phase one to $14 million. The district expects to put a no-tax-increase bond issue for the remaining $5 million before voters in April 2023.
Phase one included a 600-seat auditorium, a 4,700-square-foot commons/cafeteria, a 2,300-square-foot media center, a 1,300-seat gymnasium with an elevated track, an outdoor seating area for students, an administration and fine arts wing, 11 core classrooms, three special services classrooms and six temporary core classrooms on the mezzanine of the gymnasium.
During phase two, more than 14 additional classrooms will be added to the building. The temporary classrooms will be removed, and an additional 350 bleachers will be installed in the space. The seating in the high school gymnasium will increase from 1,300 to 2,000.
An agriculture education building will also be part of phase two. Agriculture education and a few other classes will remain in their current facilities until August 2025.
Superintendent Jim Jones said the district designed the building with phase two in mind.
"We built a frame for it, but we had to be creative to get to the point where we're at right now," he said.
The project first came up in 2009, Jones said, when the district's enrollment continued to increase and the board of education began asking what the next step was.
Two years later, the district purchased the 25-plus acres of land that now serves as the home for the new high school.
The district broke ground in April 2020.
"I have said a variety of prayers over my time on the board regarding this new high school," Board of Education President Nicki Russell said. "For instance, prayer was said so that the decision makers had the ability to make the right decisions. Prayer was said for the safety of the workers who constructed this beautiful building. Prayer was said when that monsoon came and I prayed that it would stop and that was maybe a selfish prayer."