Opening day for glitzy new Harriton High

It has lights that dim to save energy when the sun shines and a water-collection system on the roof.

There's a guidance office with waiting room; students don't have to sit in the hall.

There's a classroom that seats 115; no graduate of Harriton High School, therefore, need be fazed by the large lecture halls at college.

"They'll be prepared," said Doug Young, Lower Merion School District spokesman.

After five years of planning and debate, the new Harriton High School opened yesterday for freshman orientation at its 50-acre campus on North Ithan Road in Rosemont.

The project cost $100 million, and a concurrent project to replace Lower Merion High School in Ardmore is priced at $108.5 million.

Harriton's Class of 2013 will be the first to launch its high school career in the state-of-the-art building. School officially will start Sept. 8.

Yesterday, freshmen in small groups, helped by teachers and upperclassmen in yellow "ask me" T-shirts, explored the new building.

"It's really nice, but it's huge," said Renee Simms, 14, of Villanova.

"I didn't think it was going to be this big. I think I'm going to get lost," said Erika Smith, 14, of Ardmore.

The 300,000-square-foot facility includes airy classrooms with projection capability and wireless Internet access for students' laptops.

There are two gymnasiums and a fitness room in which wrestling mats snap onto the walls. A choral room has acoustic "pillows" on the ceiling; it's flanked by a climate-controlled room for musical instruments.

The school has a TV studio, and a greenhouse for growing native plants.

The full-service cafeteria faces a courtyard, where students can dine al fresco. The art studios also offer access to the outdoors.

Storm water is collected and recycled to the bathrooms; there are slotted shutters outside all windows to cut down on cooling costs.

"It's lovely," said Hugh Rodman, a math teacher. "The old building had flaws, but we didn't care. It didn't matter that the roof leaked. We hope to make this into a wonderful place to work."

The new building sits adjacent to the old one, due to be demolished starting this fall. Most of the work will be next summer, Young said.

Since 2004, the school district and community activists have battled over how to replace the district's two high schools, which all agree were outdated.

Stephen J. Gleason, cofounder of Budget Reform for Student Learning, a nonprofit group that formed in 2006 to consider school budgeting and building issues in Lower Merion, called the new building "outrageous."

He cited figures from a national study that said that of the 10 most expensive high schools in 2008, the median per-pupil construction cost was $67,104; in contrast, Harriton's was $83,400, Gleason said.

"I think they're too big and too expensive," he said. "This points [up] the fallacy of the process. To fill the school, the district has to forcibly have students attend Harriton who don't want to go there."

Last year, 845 students attended Harriton, and 1,475 went to Lower Merion. That is because more families live closer to Lower Merion High than to Harriton.

In a controversial move, the school board voted in January to balance enrollment by force-busing pupils to Harriton from a narrow swath of North Narberth and South Ardmore.

Members said the redistricting would disrupt the fewest pupils compared with other plans. The board's aim is two equal school populations of 1,050 to 1,100 by 2012, Young said.

"We are on target," he said Monday.

Under the plan, children from largely minority South Ardmore were chosen for busing because of proximity to Harriton, not because of race, Young said.

But some say their children should be able to walk to nearby Lower Merion. Those parents say that they are being used to meet illegal racial quotas for Harriton, and that the black community unfairly bears the brunt of redistricting.

Nine families filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia on May 14, alleging racial discrimination. A trial is set for March 1, 2010.

The state's Human Relations Commission and the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights also are investigating.

Smith, one of those chosen for busing, said she preferred Lower Merion because it was closer to home.

But after getting a look at the new high school, she was not inclined to complain.

"What can I say? It's high school. Fun. I don't care," she said.