TPS To Start Expansion On Edison High School

Tulsa Public Schools is about to start a $6 million addition to Edison High School. The goal is to create spaces that seem more like a college but are ready for a tornado.

The last major addition to the campus was the athletic center and the last addition to the building was a new library, now TPS plans to add more classrooms, lecture halls and storm shelter space to the front of the building.

The already large footprint of Edison High School is about to grow larger within the confines of the block where the school is effectively land locked.

In a pocket on the front of the building, TPS plans to add a major new addition that will open in the fall of 2016.

Bob LaBass with Tulsa Public Schools said, "This is one of the bigger projects, this is one of the last projects in this bond."

The addition was designed by architects that work on colleges so the building would help give high school kids to get a sense of what college looks like.

It's got a huge glass wall front, similar to the library addition, but inside there are two storm shelter spaces, a new feature that TPS plans to design into every project they can going forward.

“The two auditorium spaces will be hardened with concrete walls and roof is able to withstand 250 miles per hour wind and they're available for that because you don't really need windows for that,” LaBass said.

The new section will be two stories, but as tall as three levels of the current building. It adds some space for classrooms and counseling, allowing for more renovation in the existing building.

It's the fourth addition attached to the original construction of the Edison building, but another same sized addition is planned later for the middle school.

LaBass said, "This is a college prep school, we're trying to give that atmosphere for the kids plus have the hardened space."

The new sheltered areas aren't big enough to hold all of the students, but can hold more than 300 children, while other safe areas in the building can hold the rest.

The construction should start in a couple of weeks and take 18 months.