Rodriguez JH will replace Carter JH
The future Joey Rodriguez Junior High School has gone vertical.
That means the steel is now being erected for the frame of the facility. After lots of preparations 鈥 grading, installing utilities, drilling piers, pouring grade beams and more 鈥 it鈥檚 starting to look like a real building. The masonry walls for the gymnasium and storm shelter are also going up.
鈥淪eeing the framing and building begin to take form is bringing life to the ideas and plans that we have made over the course of the last two years,鈥 said Carter Junior High principal Elena Lopez. 鈥淲e are all eagerly anticipating the completion of the project and looking forward to the positive impact Rodriguez Junior High will have in our community.鈥
When it opens, Rodriguez will replace Carter Junior High, which first opened in 1958 and has become old and too costly to maintain. Plus, the site it sits on is undersized, and erosion in the adjacent creek impedes site use. There is no room for a track around the football field or enough parking.
That will all change with the new building and location. The new school is on the site where the former Knox Elementary once stood, a site that is more centrally located to the Carter student population and large enough to accommodate all program offerings.
The new building will be approximately 155,000 square feet and will range in height from the three-story classroom blocks on the north to a single-story administration office space and a one-and-a-half-floor media center. The new facility will include 48 classroom spaces, including CTE classrooms, break-out and collaboration spaces, teacher workrooms and offices. There will be performing arts classrooms for band, orchestra, drama, choir and art, along with rooms for SPED programs, science labs and a storm shelter. Outdoor spaces include a new entry plaza and canopy, a regulation synthetic turf football field with a four-lane track, bleachers, press box, concessions and restrooms.
The construction of the new junior high school is funded by the 2019 Bond and started in the fall of 2023. Completion is scheduled for the summer of 2025.
of the Rodriguez construction.