News From the New Building

After years of construction, Torrington High School students will finally be moving into a brand new building In January. Students and staff have both questions and concerns about how things will run and what the upheaval of moving midyear will be. 

Voices of the Students

THS students have been anticipating this move for quite a while now, with construction having started the summer of 2022. That means that the current senior class has been attending school in a construction zone since their sophomore year. 

Many students in the Senior class feel unsure of the move with students Danielle Iannacito and Justin Chau feeling like the move is rushed. Iannacito suggested that “We should wait until next year to move.” Chau agreed, saying, “I don’t like moving in the middle of the year.” After having spent their entire high school experience in the same building, moving in the last half of their final year feels pointless to some. 

 Some seniors however are excited for the idea of a new building. Senior Rosalia Castillo feels that “It’s good to experience new things.” While she said she is most excited for the natural lighting in the cafeteria, Senior football player Wadley Anty said he is most excited for the new weight room.

Another common concern is that it will be confusing for students. Junior Krystian Garcia states “It’s gonna be a hard switch because we’ve been used to the school.” Freshman Nate Fernandez agrees, saying he “thinks it’s going to be confusing.

According to Principal Scott, the school is making an effort to resolve some concerns by hoping to have student orientations as well as a field day event to get to know the new school. This will hopefully be beneficial and make the transition go smoother. 

Sports Sagas
From winter to the spring season and potentially into the following school year, sports will be affected due to the move to the new school. 

These changes will affect how the course of the winter and spring sports play out. The sports that will be affected by these changes are girls and boys basketball, girls and boys tennis, and the indoor track season. 

Basketball season games and practices will be affected. There isn’t a gym that can be used for home games after January 4th. The only gym available will be the middle school gym which doesn’t meet CIAC requirements. Basketball home games will be held at the beginning of the basketball season.

When asked about opinions on home games being in the beginning of the season one of the students stated that they were unhappy. Senior Kelsy McClain noted that “our senior night will have to be in the being of the season.”

In the summer of 2022, the tennis courts were demolished to start the building of the school. Since then the tennis team hasn’t been able to practice at home courts and hasn’t been able to host games. They will have to continue to practice at Duran Street.

Students on the tennis team are also not pleased to hear about having to continue practice at Duran Street. Junior Maddie McGillicuddy noted, “It’s frustrating because there are only two courts which limits our playing time. We also can’t have home matches due to the lack of room on the court.”

Senior Samra Babic shared more concerns, saying, “It can be overcrowded when boys and girls teams are practicing at the same time. We previously had 4 courts, and were able to practice separately from the boys and girls. But with less space it leads to poor performance.” 

The BLT (Big Little Theater)

We’ve all heard rumors of the new theater in the new building, but how does Thespians Troupe 611 feel about the changes? According to our Principal Mr. Scott, our new theater is going to be larger in so many ways. First off, the theater is going to be able to seat 490 seats, which is much better than our just under 400, now. Mrs. Zwart, the theater department’s producer says “We might not fill the seats for plays, but we will for other events.” 

The theater obviously isn’t used only for plays and musicals, but it’s the reason we have one at our school. That being said, it’s important we stay up to date with our regulations and equipment. For this reason, we are getting new, state-of-the-art lights and electronics. With this new, up-and-coming equipment, our tech crew will obviously need training, but the adults have that covered. Mrs. Zwart says “We have good students” who will be able to handle the new equipment. The teachers will be getting trained with the new electronics and they will, in turn, train the students who will be using said equipment. 

“Storage might be interesting,” Zwart said. While our dressing rooms are supposed to be quite large, it’s said we will have little to no backstage storage. The actors will also not have a green room, but the band room will be very close by. 

“I think it will be amazing. Difficult, but amazing,” Mrs. Chamberlain, the theater’s choreographer and Thesian troup manager says.