Whether it’s the extra space or the little details that make teaching easier, Coupeville High School teachers are enjoying their new school as they settle into their classrooms.

The new high school is set to open Tuesday when students begin classes for the 2007-2008 school year.

Teachers will enjoy larger classrooms and better equipment when the school year starts. Some teachers said their new rooms are more than double the size of their previous ones in the old high school.

Blake Severns, a history teacher, pointed out several nifty details to the classrooms. Each classroom has an audio system that allows teachers to lecture at their normal voice yet be clearly heard by the students. He said a major issue in teaching students lies with teachers not speaking loudly enough.

Teachers will also enjoy more storage space, ceiling-mounted projectors, and a building that is free of leaks.

Severns said his classroom in the old building leaked water and there was a gap between the floor and the wall. When students would lean back in their chairs, their chair legs would slip through the opening.

Science teacher L. Dee Eller said her classroom was built pretty much the way she designed it.

“We have a definite space for lectures, a definite space for labs and a definite space for computer use,” Eller said. She did say her classroom lacks one detail she would have liked — locks on the cabinets that would have provided a safe place to store microscopes.

With room for lectures and labs, her new classroom is a lot larger than the tiny one she had in the old building.

“It’s about four times bigger than the space I spent 15 years in,” Eller said, adding the classroom also has better ventilation and lighting which will be a help for student labs.

Teachers, students and parents have in recent days been touring the new high school that was funded by a $22.8 million bond issue. The new high school replaced the old brick building that was built in the 1940s. The community held a celebration in May to say farewell to the old building, which was demolished later in the summer.

While the old building is gone, pieces of it were incorporated into the new school. The old bricks were placed in the walkway on the school’s courtyard and a round window was placed in the high school commons area.

People touring or moving materials into the new school were pleased with how the building turned out.

“It’s beautiful. I walked in and I almost cried,” said music teacher Jessica Barker as she and her mom, Suzanne, moved filing cabinets into her new room.

Her new sound-proofed music room has plenty of storage space for instruments in addition to three separate practice rooms and a recording studio. She also said having separate entrances into the music room is an advantage. Before students would often trip over each other when entering the class.

Art teacher Kim McWilliams was enthused about the additional storage space. She also liked having a separate room for a kiln. She spent Thursday sorting out her supplies and materials so she’s ready for the first day of school.

“I’m just absolutely excited about this. It’s a work of love right now,” McWilliams said.

In addition to her spacious art room, she has a two-sided display case outside her classroom that will allow student work to be visible from the hallway as well as from an outside courtyard.

Workers are busy putting the finishing touches on the building in time for school to open Sept. 6. Thursday they were painting door frames and they are continuing their work on the landscape in front of the building.

Volunteers from the local Lions Club chipped in to help install equipment in the school’s vocational and technical buildings.

School leaders are planning a grand opening celebration for the new school. However, that won’t take place until Oct. 3.