Bullard High School students returned from a two-week vacation to new digs.

(Banner Staff Photo by Don Treul) Bullard Independent School District Superintendent Keith Bryant, right, toured Stacy Gwartney’s new science lab in the newly completed wing at Bullard High School. Students started using the classrooms Monday, Jan. 4. Students used newly constructed classrooms for the first time Monday, Jan, 4. Renovations to the new wing were completed in December and classrooms were furnished for teaching for the first day of school in 2010.

“I think the community can see that we’re serious about growth,” said BISD Superintendent Keith Bryant.

The new wing accommodates 10 new classrooms. However, only three of the rooms are being used full-time and another is used part-time as a lab.

The new classrooms will include interactive white-boards or “smart boards” and some of the décor more resembles collegestyle classroom settings. Bryant said the settings are designed to get away from the institutional style of rows and desks

Beanbag chairs and couches replace the more traditional desks in some of the classrooms of the new wing at Bullard High School. BHS Vice Principal Mike Richardson, left, and BISD Superintendent Keith Bryant test out the new furnishings. (Banner Staff Photo by Don Treul) “Our challenge is to make kids comfortable and how it (the setting) will affect their learning.” He said.

Traditional desks have been replaced with comfortable couches and beanbag “chairs” in some of the rooms. In one of the labs, desks can be remotely raised to double as lab tables.

“The goal is to make this wing an out-of-the-box high school model,” Bryan said.

The non-traditional classroom style also will require nontraditional instructors who will teach “outside the box.” Bryant said the district will closely monitor the affect the nontraditional style will have on the students.

“We’ll watch their scores and ask them,” he said. “We’ll listed to their feedback.”

Classrooms are about 26 x 28 feet. The wing jets out in the shape of a ship’s hull from the high school’s main building, and the upper story features floor to ceiling windows that give students a panoramic view of the countryside. Bright red lockers hug the walls of each hallway.

The added classrooms will help the district plan for future potential growth.

“I think the first benefit (of the new wing) is to relieve the potential of overcrowding,” Bryant said.

About 600 students attend Bullard High School. That is “not quite capacity” according to Bryant, who said the new wing will help accommodate about 900 students on the campus.