SELLERSBURG, Ind. (WDRB) — Silver Creek High School students finally got their first taste this week of the school’s new multimillion-dollar expansion.
Construction equipment has been a common sight for students throughout the past couple months of the school year as crews finished up work on new athletic facilities, a new performing arts center, new classroom space, office space and a cafeteria.
The new, vibrant orange and blue paint boosts school spirit for the Dragons. Ryan Grahan said he’s loving his junior year at Silver Creek.
“The Class of 2026 is the only class that gets to experience the old school and the entire new school. So I think we’re pretty lucky for that,” he said Friday. “… We were congested in the hallways all of last year … but with new hallways, it’s like we forgot what we were missing.”
Last year, the Silver Creek School Corporation board approved $48 million for the two-story renovation. At the time, the high school’s capacity was 550 students, and the renovation increased that to 1,200.
“It’s not like our building was impossible to function in. It was old and it was a little dilapidated. They’d put a lot of band aids on it just to try to save money. But now with this, it’s just so much more conducive to learning,” said Michael Day, who’s been a pre-calculus teacher at Silver Creek for 30 years. “This is just really, really a sigh of relief and a great atmosphere to come to work each day.”
From almost no natural light to wide open common spaces and new bleachers and science labs, it’s almost unrecognizable.
“We’ve got flexible spaces kids can be in. The technology in our classrooms is up to date, just as simple as the furniture in the classrooms allows for movement and grouping,” Day said. “It just really enhances the process.”
Principal Rob Willman said the school hadn’t been updated since it was built in the early 1960s.
“It doesn’t really hit you until you actually walk in and things start to take shape,” Williams said. “We still have a significant way to go, but … this is a really significant checkpoint for us.”
Silver Creek split away from the West Clark Community Schools Corporation in 2020 to clear the way for this multimillion-dollar project.
This was the first phase of the project. A second phase should be completed around this time next year.
“We at Silver Creek, we always had a great faculty and staff and students, but we just haven’t always had the infrastructure to support that,” Grahan said. “But now we have that, and I think we’re really going to see some good blossoming.”