T-L Photo/JOSIE BURKHART St. Clairsville High School’s science labs will be receiving a makeover this summer, including a remodeled room and new technology.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — St. Clairsville High School’s science labs will be getting a makeover this summer.

A total of five rooms will be updated. Four rooms are set to have new equipment, while the fifth will be renovated as a Makerspace, which is a creative area where students can design, build and experiment using tools such as 3-D printers and advanced technology.

The district’s Permanent Improvement Fund will cover the cost of the makeovers. These funds can only be used for capital improvements with an estimated lifespan of five years or more.

“Our students deserve learning environments that inspire them and set them up for success,” Superintendent Walter Skaggs said. “The updated labs and creation of a Makerspace will equip students with the tools and experiences they need to thrive beyond high school, particularly in (science, technology, engineering and math) STEM-related fields.”

The design process is underway, and requests for qualifications were recently published. Updates will be shared on the district’s website and social media.

The school sends out a survey to graduating seniors every year. This year it asked about the science labs. The results that came back indicated the labs need to be updated. Assistant Superintendent Christina Laudermilt said students said the school needs additional lab space and updated labs because they are going off to four- or two-year institutions where better preparation is needed.

The labs have not been updated since the school was built in the 1900s. Laudermilt and her staff took that into consideration and with the blessing and support of the school board, it has opted to start renovating the labs.

The science labs will be renovated from scratch. Laudermilt noted that because the building is so old, work on the rooms will need to take them to their bare bones.

Science teachers will be designing the labs to meet their needs in chemistry, physics and anatomy.

“We’re adapting with the changing times,” Laudermilt said. “We want to lean more toward STEM when we talk about preparing.”

The renovations are expected to be done by the start of the next school year. McKinley Architecture and Engineering of Wheeling is doing the design work.

In the next couple of weeks, school employees will be going on some scheduled tours to visit other science labs to see what’s out there. As the labs are designed, updates will go out to the community.

Laudermilt plans to kick off the start of the next school year by possibly having an open house, where people of the community could come in and see the new labs.

The majority of students who graduate from St. Clairsville High School will attend two- and four-year colleges after graduation, according to Laudermilt, and having these updated labs will improve the school and benefit these students because they will be more prepared.

The district plans to incorporate some sort of STEM class into the high school, as it’s already added a STEM rotation to the elementary and middle schools.

“Having updated science labs will definitely help a lot of our students,” Laudermilt said. “So, the majority of our students do attend two- and four-year colleges after graduation, and then, in addition to that, changing with the times and what they’re going to need, making them more prepared is definitely one of the things that we are accomplishing with updating the labs.”