Orange County Schools | Hillsborough, North Carolina
Cedar Ridge High School’s Classroom Addition is an innovative educational environment where students are allowed to explore their passions, collaborate with classmates and direct their educational experience.
The Classroom Addition completes the master plan of Cedar Ridge High School. The addition adds 23 academic classrooms and two science labs, which provides teaching space for an additional 500 students on campus. Three of the academic classrooms are separated with operable walls that can be opened to create a testing room for up to 100 students in one place. The addition is anchored by an open, student-centered space nicknamed the Learning Forum. The Learning Forum is truly a communal space for all students and staff. Located in the center of the new classroom addition, the Forum is an extension of the adjacent classrooms where students can work independently or in small groups while still being monitored by teachers and staff in surrounding rooms. The main feature of the Forum is the tiered assembly area, which has a capacity of 128 students. This naturally daylit space includes a floor-to-ceiling writable wall surface and an integrated audio-video system of flat screen monitors and wall speakers. As a result, this space can work for multi-class lectures, small performances and even movie night on the weekends. Between classes and at lunch time, the space is wonderful for social interaction and club activities, and its inward-focus encourages safety, security and stewardship.