Portsmouth City Schools Portsmouth Junior / Senior High School

Portsmouth City Schools passed a bond issue to construct a new Junior/Senior High School to update their facilities and accommodate their growing population. This project was one of three new school buildings the school district constructed as part of the overall project.

As with many educational projects, the most significant challenge was designing a project that was within budget, functional, and met all of the Ohio School Facility Commission’s (OSFC) programming requirements. In addition, this project had to overcome the obstacle of combining a junior high and high school into one building. Although both schools were in one facility, each area had to be useful for the different grade levels. The building is situated in a tight urban spot, which resulted in three stories of construction to accommodate all the program spaces. The structure combines steel framing and load-bearing masonry with a glass and brick facade.

This project was extremely important to the design and construction team because most of the contractors on this project graduated from Portsmouth City Schools. They took tremendous pride and ownership in the project, which was one of the factors that led to such a great facility. The Portsmouth Junior/Senior High School became the first OSFC-funded project to receive the Grand Prize from School Planning & Management’s Education Design Showcase. The Grand Prize is awarded each year to the school design that best meets the needs of its educational program.