BEVERLY — Beverly High School Principal Sean Gallagher, a former football and wrestling coach, admitted he had "a few pregame jitters" when he went to bed Monday night.
The former coach wasn't talking about last night's big playoff football game between Beverly and Scituate; his anxiety was directed at yesterday's official opening of the new $80 million Beverly High School — a massive project about a decade in the making.
Although the new facility had been used this year by some art, band and drama classes, until yesterday the rest of the school was still stuck in the woefully out-of-date building next door, which opened in 1964. But yesterday, for the first time, every student, teacher and administrator reported for a full day in the new Beverly High, and the midyear transition went well, Gallagher said.
"I couldn't ask for a better opening. Faculty and support staff were well-organized and prepared," Gallagher said. "It took a collective effort to have such smooth sailing throughout the day."
"We thought it would be a little chaotic, but it actually went better than planned," Superintendent Marie Galinski said. "We've been anticipating this for a while; it's nice to get the students in there. It's the start of a new era."
Teachers and movers began last Tuesday packing up classrooms, equipment and paperwork into crates and moving them across the parking lot to the new building. Everything seems to have gotten to where it was supposed to go.
"From where we were last week, with 2,500 crates packed in the hallway, to where we are now is an incredible feat, and I have to give a lot of credit to everyone," Gallagher said.
The new building is four floors and has about 368,300 square feet — more than 100,000 square feet bigger than the old high school. Not surprisingly, students are going to need a little time to adjust to their new locale.
"The stairs are so high. I have a feeling by the end of the school year we're all going to look like Hercules," said Starr Jolicoeur, a 17-year-old senior.
The most surprising part of the new building "is all the flights of stairs," said Victoria Mori, 17. "I just came from the fourth floor, and it's quite a workout — it's far. But it's clean, no graffiti."
The workout doesn't stop there. The student parking lot, right next to the old building, is now about a five- to 10-minute walk to the new building, senior Corey Cahill said. And, when you do get to the school, you've got to expend some extra energy just figuring out where you're going, he said.
"I felt like a freshman again; I didn't know where I was going," Cahill said. "When I walked in (to the lobby), I looked at the list of homerooms and I still went to the wrong place twice."
"I went to the wrong room three times," Mori chimed in.
Things would have been much worse had students not spent last Monday taking 80-minute tours of the building, Gallagher said. Students also met in groups yesterday morning to get oriented and were given a chance to find their new lockers and ask questions.
"Throughout the day, there seemed to be less and less kids lost," Gallagher said. "By the end of the day, it seemed almost routine."
To aid those who are maybe less spatially inclined, maps were placed on each floor. Students were also given their new locker combinations in advance.
The new lockers "are huge," Mori said, but "you have to know what floor you're on, because they all look the same."
Other upgrades include high-tech flushing mechanisms on the toilets, which have instructions posted on the wall, Cahill said. Push the handle up, and the toilet flushes once; push the handle down, and it flushes twice.
Another great find: "The views from the fourth floor are nice," Mori said. "In the old building, everything was just another classroom."
"It's a good school, I like it, but I'm not good at changing," said Nick Dixey, a 17-year-old senior. "I liked the old school because I'm used to it. But everything is up-to-date here, which is good."
Was he excited to come to the new school yesterday morning?
"I knew it was coming, but the hardest part was actually waking up and physically coming to school. That's always the hardest part," Dixey said.
Some things, even a new building can't change.
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