After more than three long years, the faculty and students at W.T. Woodson High School can finally say that their school is their own. They can bid farewell to all of the construction workers, trailers and boarded up corridors and revel in the bright lights, fresh paint and expanded facilities.

The renovations, which totaled $87 million, are complete, and although faculty and staff are already in the newly renovated classrooms and wings, they were able to finally celebrate their new facilities at a Nov. 7 rededication ceremony.

“It was difficult to go through, but in the end, it was very much worth it because we now have a beautiful school,” said senior Molly Sabolski. “We were able to get through it together.”

The rededication ceremony brought out many of the Fairfax area’s luminaries, including Sen. Chap Petersen (D-34), Del. David Bulova (D-37), Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova (D-At Large) and Supervisor John Cook (R-Braddock) and the three last principals at the school. After a ribbon-cutting at the new main entrance, the ceremony continued in the newly-rededicated Joan Bedinger Auditorium, where the elected officials and PTSO president Nell Hurley, Principal Jeff Yost and School Board member Tessie Wilson (Braddock) gave speeches. A 15-minute video detailing the school’s history and an Irish Blessing, sung by the Woodson Select Vocal Ensemble followed and guests were then given the opportunity to tour the nearly brand new building.

FOUR NEW AREAS have been added to the school and several others have been renovated. A new administration and student services area has been constructed that will contain administration offices and conference rooms. A new art and performing arts wing was also added, with a new dance studio, black box theater, guitar room and separate rooms for drama, orchestra, band and chorus classes.

A science wing, the largest undertaking of the renovation, was added, giving all science classes space to have a laboratory and classroom. The athletics department also reaped the benefits of the expansion, getting a new weight room, a completely renovated stadium with a new scoreboard and press boxes, refurbished gymnasium and more.

“The school looks fantastic,” Wilson said. “The community waited a long time for the renovations to be done, and I’m thrilled with the job we’ve done.”

The renovations have been 10 years in the making, according to Yost. It was then that RENEW, or Renovate to Educate the Next Era at Woodson, formed and started pushing for renovations to be made to the school, which had not had any since its 1962 opening. Their efforts were carried on for approximately six years, until actual plans for the renovation were drawn, and an architectural firm hired. Yost said that the architects would bring in designs for the school, and Woodson and county officials would meet to discuss and decide on them.

“They would bring us designs to sign off on,” Yost said. “And we’d have meetings of all relevant school personnel and some central office folks. We did this area by area in the building.”

Ground was broken on the construction in 2006, and while the renovations were carried out, 47 trailers were brought on campus to serve as class space while certain sections of the school closed down, barricaded by boards to ensure the students’ safety. As each section was completed, the students taking classes in those areas were brought back in from the trailers, and currently, all students are back in the school.

“It was annoying, always going out to the trailers and moving rooms,” said senior Nick Ives. “They got too crowded, and in the winter it was too cold and in summer, they got very hot. But it is all worth it, even though it’s my last year here. It’s looks great compared to what it was before.”

Currently, most of the renovated buildings are open and being used, even though finishing touches are still being added. In the gym, redone banners are still being hung, and outside, an athletic field that was used to store construction equipment and supplies is being fixed and reopened. When all is said and done, though, Woodson High School will have the largest footprint of any school in the Fairfax County system and be able to continue its long tradition of academic and athletic success.

“We knew all along that we were working for the next era at Woodson,” Hurley said. “And now, it has a structure worthy of its staff and students.”