At the beginning of every school year, a new group of freshmen arrive at Edmond Memorial High School. For their first year of high school, most of the freshmen classes are in the Freshman Academy, which is separate from the main building. This school year is no different, except for the renovations made to the Freshman Academy.
The Freshman Academy opened in 2008 to allow freshmen to learn how high school will work without having the stress of going across the whole school to find their classes. Freshman Principal Carrie Higdon has been involved with the Freshman Academy for years. She has seen firsthand how EMHS makes transitioning from middle school to high school easier.
“They’re still part of our school body,” Higdon said. “It allows [the freshmen] to have their classes in one central location, and it allows them to have one office they know to go to where I am here and the secretary is here . . . The big building can be such a maze.”
The renovations present the building as new and cleaner while also making the space more practical. The smaller pillars allow it to be easier to move around the building, and the new tile replaced the dirty, damaged floors.
“The floors were in really bad shape, so while they did the floors, they also added in some new paint,” freshman English teacher Sunny Baldridge said. “I know with the poles and us taping things up there, the paint had kind of chipped off. So I think they were trying to put things that would be more helpful.”
One of the main purposes of the renovation was to fix the cafeteria. They added sliding glass doors to the cafeteria to keep it more organized with the many new freshmen.
“With all the doors on the cafeteria, we just have a better system,” Freshman Academy secretary Cara Hogan said. “Everybody is really impressed with how nice it is.”
The Freshman Academy renovation will keep the building looking clean and organized. With as many students as the class of 2028 holds, this will surely bring a new and improved learning environment.
Contact Paisley Edgin at [email protected]
