AUGUSTA -- This summer, Todd Farrin heard something from his daughter, Paige, that most parents never expect to hear."She said, 'I can't wait to start school,' " Farrin said of his daughter, an incoming freshman, who made the comment in the midst of summer vacation.
"She's been talking and talking about it," the elder Farrin said Monday as the pair paused in an upstairs hallway of the new Cony High School. "It's going to be a great thing for her to be able to start off a new school like this."
The Farrins joined Cony's incoming freshmen Monday navigating the new school, trying to locate where some of their classes will be.
In an ironic twist, Paige Farrin and her freshman classmates -- usually the ones struggling to find their way around a high school -- became relative experts on the new facility Monday as they became the first class to be able to check out the new school.
Most upperclassmen won't see the inside of the new place until this afternoon.
"It's nice to be at the same level as the upperclassmen," Paige Farrin said.
Her impression of the new school: "It's immaculate. And it's huge."
The new, approximately $30 million school opens for classes later this week.
Most work on the school has been completed, although some parts -- such as the cavernous gymnasium and wood-paneled auditorium, still have a couple of weeks of work to go.
Principal James Anastasio warned there will be challenges in starting school in such a new building.
For example, he noted, teachers don't have telephones yet.
"Things are going to happen in a new building we can't predict," he said Monday.
In an assembly in the still unfinished auditorium, Anastasio welcomed freshmen and their parents to the gleaming new building Monday night.
With 267 students at last count, the class of 2010 will be the biggest class in the building, Anastasio said.
"I can't think of a better scenario for you, as students, to have the honor to be the first class to spend four years here," Anastasio said. "I want to be able to shake 267 hands, at least, when you graduate."
Students and parents were then turned loose -- with maps on green sheets of paper -- to explore the building and find -- or at least try to find -- their classrooms.
"So far, I can say it's very, very big," said student Chris Morrisette. "It's also very nice."
His mother, Brenda Morrisette, herself a Cony graduate, raved about the school's food court, which will be open all day and sell food for cash or through a prepaid debit-card system.
She said the food court will be a wonderful place for students to sit and socialize.
And, she noted, it's on a nice campus -- not right on the rotary, which was just outside the old Cony High School, about a mile away.
Maryann Zaremba was checking out the school's cyber cafe, a roundish dining area just off the food court lined by computers.
Her freshman son, Jimmy Neff, had left her behind as he checked out other parts of the building with classmates. Daughter Nicole Neff, a senior, will also attend the new Cony.
"It's just so exciting," Zaremba said. "It's new, it's fresh. The people who worked so hard on this should be congratulated."
The 175,000-square-foot school is attached to the existing Capital Area Technical Center on Pierce Drive, between Cony Street and South Belfast Avenue.
Earlier Monday, in another bit of role reversal, Cony's teachers took a turn as students, learning about their new school and the technology it contains.
Teacher workshops Monday included orientation sessions on how to use the school's wireless Internet service and other new technology.
Teachers will also have to adapt to other changes, including, for some, not having their own classrooms.
While most teachers will be assigned to specific classrooms, those classrooms will no longer be the "home base" of teachers, according to Anastasio. They don't even have traditional teachers' desks -- just a table where they can put their laptop computer.
Teachers' home base is expected to be in one of five teachers rooms, where they will share office space with other teachers on their team. The teachers are assigned to teams alongside other teachers in their sections of the two-story building.
Tomorrow: The upperclassmen arrive.
Keith Edwards -- 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
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