GOSHEN - It's funny what a new high school building can do to entice sleepy students out of bed in the morning. No more sweating without air conditioning. No more bumping into other kids in crowded hallways.

        “You want to go to school a lot more now,” said Chris Smith, a 17-year-old Goshen High School senior. “It's a nicer place. It gives you something to look forward to.”

        That's pretty much what Gov. Bob Taft had in mind when he jump-started an existing state program with a 12-year plan to build or fix every school in every district in Ohio.

        On Sunday, Mr. Taft spoke at Goshen Local School District's dedication of its new high school and renovated middle school and Marr-Cook Elementary. The $40 million project, funded partly through the Ohio School Facilities Commission, will be finished in the spring with the completion of Spaulding Elementary.

        “I've visited buildings like this,” Mr. Taft said. “Morale is up. Pride is up. New school buildings send a powerful message to children. "We care about you, and we care about your education.' Education is important, and they should study hard and go to college.”

        The Ohio School Facilities Commission was established by the Legislature in 1997 to improve Ohio school buildings. The commission allocated $814 million in the last fiscal year on construction and renovation, about $2 million per day.

        When Goshen residents learned the state would pay 80 percent of the cost for new and renovated school buildings, it was a no-brainer to seek a levy for the local share. The levy passed in 1999.

        “We would have never been able to pass the millage to build something like this,” school board member Sue Steele said as she glanced around the new high school.

        The district has 2,750 students 1/2ndash 3/4 800 of them in grades 9-12.

        The old high school, built in 1960, was adequate for its time, Mrs. Steele said. “With us moving into new technology, and kids needing to compete in the world today, we needed to move on.”

        The new two-story 140,000-square-foot high school has more computers, televisions in every classroom, a larger gymnasium, an academic wing tucked away from noisy activities, a state-of-the art photography lab with dark room and fully digital program, and fully equipped science labs.

        “The biggest thing to me is the overall attitude,” said Amanda Hughes, a 16-year-old junior. “The impression you get when you walk in the door, it gives you pride in the school. It's a better learning environment than the old school.”

        Members of the Support Our Schools (SOS) Committee have worked relentlessly to support the district during tough financial times and in seeing this project to completion, said Superintendent Charlene Thomas. “They believed some day our number would come up, and today is the day.”

        Sharon Bell, a parent and chairman of fund raising for SOS, said the new building and renovations will make a big difference for the community: “It will bring back the Goshen pride. Now they have something they're proud of and want people to see.”

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