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History - High School South

History of High School South
 
 
The South High School building was originally built in 1961-62 as the Westerly Parkway Junior High School to house grades 7 and 8 at a cost of $2.06 million. The Fairmount Avenue School also functioned as a junior high for grades 7 and 8 at this time.

Because of continued growth in the region, a new Park Forest Junior High School was scheduled to be completed for the start of school in September 1970, however construction delays forced the opening back to Feb. 1, 1971. For the first five months of that school year the district's entire junior high population attended Westerly Parkway Junior High in double session. About 250 tenth graders from the overcrowded senior high were also using the junior high at any particular moment, making for packed hallways and classrooms.

South Building as State College Area Intermediate HIgh School
In 1981-82, secondary students were reorganized according to a 2-2-2 structure: 7th and 8th graders attended State College Area Junior High School (formerly Park Forest Junior High), 9th and 10th graders went to State College Area Intermediate High School (formerly Westerly Parkway Junior High and now High School South), and 11th and 12th graders were at State College Area Senior High School (now High School North). In 1990 the high school was restructured to be one high school including both north and south buildings.

The original portion of the South building is the “front” of the building. This part of the building is single story and includes classrooms along with the auditorium, gymnasium, cafeteria and main office area.

In 1965 an addition was constructed, which is also single story, but due to grade elevation changes on the site it operates as a second level. This addition includes classrooms, library and fitness center.
 
An additional classroom wing was constructed in 1999. Some aspects of the Career and Technical Center program are also included in the South High School. While these additions added capacity, core facilities like the libraries, auditoriums, and cafeterias remained their original size and the major mechanical and electrical systems were left intact.