What are your thoughts on Newton North High School? Was it worth the wait and the $197 million?

How I would love to be attending Newton North High School now, instead of the old three buildings we used from 1942-1945. We did get an excellent education though.

Gorgeous.  It's expensive, but it makes a bold statement about valuing quality public education and the school as a community institution.  

This is disgusting.  The standard of education in this country is so bad that schools have to cover it up with expensive buildings.  Meanwhile, the US comes somewhere behind the small island of Malta on the list of the standard of education in the developed world.

I don't care how affluent a town is, the state should put a cap on how much any school district can spend on buildings.  $197 million!  And I bet most of those children couldn't find Malta on a map if asked. Gee, there is a good chance that they couldn't even find the USA.

smokey8 and others who don't get it....

I was raised in a lower-middle class family living in a town similar to Newton back west.  Most of the other families in my neighborhood were upper-middle class.  My classmates all knew from a very young age that they were going to college, knew that they would be taking calculus and AP history in high school and knew that they would be successful as adults.  It wasn't just hope, it was certain.  I learned that attitude and grew up expecting the same.  The school helped in this attitude.  There was a fine pool, a couple of auditoriums, separate wings for each subject, a fine view of the countryside and teachers that literally wrote the college texts in the subjects that they taught.  I suspect that this building will feel a lot like the one where I went to high school.  You can't teach that attitude, you have to just be around it.

In Response to Re: The new Newton North High:
It makes a statement about irresponsible tax payer abuse.  The physical structure of a school does nothing to enhance or diminish the learning experience.  How did Abraham Lincoln manage to become so highly educated?  The only thing that matters is the quality of the teachers, the motivation of the students, and the parental involvement.  What kind of physical buildings do you think kids in China and India are learning in?  These are the same kids taking thousands of jobs away from Americans each year (both offshore and onshore).  The teacher/student ratio is much higher in those countries than here in the good old USA.

I was a 1978 graduate of NNHS and I wish they had asked me about the design because I work in the construction industry.
 First they would have put the architectural design out to bid and NOT  hand picked one of the most overrated and flashy Graham Gund. Second" Main Street" inside the building never won any educational awards it only won a stupid architectural award and for that reason alone they kept it. Most of the students and teachers hated it. It took forever to get from one side to the other. They have to extend the time between classes for it to work.

The old school was built in 1978 it is now 2010. 

Since when does 2010 - 1978 = 38.

See Boston Globe article segment below:

"Just beyond the new school, with its pristine bike racks and freshly planted trees, the 38-year-old structure it replaces is fenced off and awaits demolition."

Silly waste of resources.  If they'd spent ONLY $100 million would the kids graduating be less educated?

Dear Chia4life, The old school was built 38 years ago it was started in 1972 (+ 38 = 2010).

It's a beautiful new facility, the main flaw in the ribbon cutting was the fact that David Cohen, the man who initiated this project and essentially sacrificed his position as mayor of the city was not one of the people who cut the ribbon.  Setti Warren did the grandstanding without considering the fact that the former Mayor should have played a larger part in the ceremonies.

All I can say is WOW !!
I'm a "66" alum and have always been thankful of the great education I received there and wished I'd have taking fuller advantage of it!
Certainly have come a long way from the old tunnels, the fieldhouse and the grand old Building 1.

Funny posts by those who just don't get it.  Schools are an investment in kids and the future, and even tho the new school is probably over the top expensive, it's still worth it.  You can't spend too much on education, whether it's on the buildings, teachers, programs, whatever.  Still worth it.

Education is obviously an extremely important factor when it comes to a town and their "status". It's obvious to say that Newton is highly praised for their education, but do we need a big fancy school to respresent that. The new Newton North has become a symbol, rather than an edcutional facility. It wasn't the "students" they had in mind, rather the affluence of Newton and the need to represent that.

Yes Newton did build this school for there appearence, but I feel it was more for the students. I went to Newton North it was discusting, the learning enviorment was just terrible. The heat was in the summer and the a/c was on in the winter. The Students needed a very healthy and positive atmosphere. So yes this Highschool was worth every penny!

A learning environment is one thing, but tearing down an entire structure for a brand new state of the art school may have been a little over the top. Yes,the building did have its issues, but they weren't something a renovation couldn't fix. Clearly they had other plans, the school now has a restaurant open to the public, is that part of the idea of a good learning environment? Will this costly restaurant open to all now raise the amount of graduates and acceptances at Ivy League colleges? I think not. 

All those posters who think the school looks good
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; I think it looks pretty much like any std office park building; it ain't bad looking, which puts it in the upper 10%, but for what we paid, it is just a brick box.
The landscaping is very cheap (look at the size of the trees planted in the parking lot at the north side on walnut street)
The bicycle racks are awful; they don't do any of the things that a bike rack should do (hold a bike upright while you put stuff in panniers; not scratch the paint; have a rain roof so you can adjust your poncho; and,  if you want an "A", allow you to lock both wheels and the frame with a single lock
But the real problem with the New North is the message: buildings are important for education. Now it is true that you need hot and cold water, and bathrooms and so forth, but after the basics, people are a lot more important then facilities. You look at the old building 56 at MIT, which produced a number of nobel prize winners, it was falling down, but it was a great place ot work because the best people were there.
Beyond that, the message is spend, spend, spend, and don't think of anything clever. For instance, the school is crammed full of apple computers, which cost 2 or 3 times what wintel boxes cost, and if they had gone with Linux/openoffice/apache, probably 4 or 5 times.
The school is poorly laid out - the kids don't have enough time between classes to walk from one room to another
The stairs are not wide enough
but worst of all, the real sin, we had a perfactly good 30 year old building that could have been renovated for half the cost.
So, the arrogant, wealthy citizens of Newton made the people of Brockton and Fall River and Lawrence pay so the kids in Newton could have a shiny palace.
Isn't this the problme that most of hte liberals in Newton complain about constantly, that the rich run the country and treat the poor like dirt ?
How about looking in the mirror

The issue isn't whether NNHS is a beautiful building or not, afterall, who can't create a beautiful building for $200 million and an open check book by the city.  The real issue is what we did wrong, which was not give the architects a budget to work with and it took 10 years to actually give the project a direction.  In the last 5 years the price tag rose from $104 million up to $197.  If the city had any leaders this would never have happened.  Why is this important?  Now, the city has roughly $100 million less that it can borrow from to repair the other 20 schools (we have 13 other schools either have to be renovated or built new).  We have successfully jeopardized the rest of the school system for this one building.  But on the bright side, it is a beautiful building.

 I feel there are those who wish public education did not exist and there is no pleasing them. I guess I wonder how long will this school last? more than the 38 of its predecessor? I too went to the 3 building montage and I am glad I did.
The sad thing is once the new Kids graduate will they be able to afford to raise there KIds here? Mine are gone there is no way they could do it and so it seems we market our school and attract the affluent to get an education and then the whole clan moves on I have witnessed it.
I wonder if that is why there is no Band playing at the High School football games? There is no root system, just part time students passing through Is it really money that is the problem?
Or is it a lack of Spirit?
There is a band at every college? yet where is the Newton North Band?
It is a nice building but there are a lot of nice buildings Nice houses do not make for Good Families and Nice Buildings do not make for Good Education
Lets see how it plays out over the next 10 years
Papa Jack

As a Newton resident with a child in elementary school I think it was a waste of money, there is no reason they had to spending THAT amount on a new school! Now for the 2011-2012 school year they are cutting 33.6 full-time teaching positions, cutting Latin from the middle school, drama from 7th & 8th grade, recorder from 3rd grade and chorus from 4th grade. They are also raising fees for after school sports, morning and after-care programs, bus fees....I just can't imagine why there isn't enough money in the budget to fund these programs and pay these teachers....oh wait I can "The New Newton North"

I was one of the students to enter the second generation building built in 1973.  It was a couple of years old and already was in trouble, what with the asbestoes issue and what not.  My memories of high school are not too good.  Most of my friends felt the same way, including one dude who was this big athletic dude with a brand new Corvette when he was sixteen!!!  If someone like that did'nt have good memories, I don't think too many people did!!!