Helias opens new addition this week

Features include chapel, science rooms and offices

Part of the new addition at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City is a chapel. The plan is to be able to seat nearly 200 students in the chapel for services.
Part of the new addition at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City is a chapel. The plan is to be able to seat nearly 200 students in the chapel for services.

Helias High School's new chapel will receive its name any day now, said Maureen Quinn, campus minister at the Catholic high school in Jefferson City.

Bishop John Gaydos is responsible for endowing Helias' chapel with its name, Quinn said, but while the school waits for his announcement, preparations have already been underway to open the school's newest classroom additions.

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The new addition to Helias' main building is a three-floor design, featuring six new science classrooms, the chapel, administrative offices, a new main entrance to the school, a dance room and a choir room.

As for the athletic complex under construction down the street, Sandra Hentges, Helias' director of communications and admissions, said it's on schedule to be open this fall, but there's no definitive date yet.

She wasn't sure if the athletic complex would be ready for Helias' first football game of the season, but that's obviously the goal, she said.

The complex will feature full football and soccer stadiums, eight tennis courts, two locker room buildings, a press box, new parking spots around the perimeter and a basic baseball diamond Hentges said will serve mostly for batting practice and warm-ups.

The finishing touches were being applied to the main building's additions Wednesday.

The second floor is at the level of the parking lot and will be where people enter the building - at the building's far northeast side. It is also the floor on which the chapel and administrative offices are located.

The most notable difference about the entrance that visitors may notice is the security - "a little more safety, a few more doors" to get through, Hentges said.

The doors to the holy sanctum of the new chapel belonged to the original chapel and still feature their original stained glass insets.

Helias students and staff celebrated the first Mass in its new chapel Monday. The chapel will host daily Mass during an average week, Hentges said.

It's nowhere near large enough to fit all of Helias' students, but it can accommodate teachers, administrators, other staff and community members.

Above the altar is a painting of the crucifixion of Christ that Hentges said is a replica of the one in the St. Louis Cathedral.

Mini-vaulted spaces of sorts lined the first floor hallway outside the two new chemistry labs - new fume hoods were waiting to be moved inside Wednesday. The fume hoods are enclosed spaces students can use to safely conduct chemistry experiments. At least one of the new chemistry labs also features a large glass partition that divides the room and acts as a fire barrier if necessary.

Science classes will begin in the new addition Tuesday, Hentges said. In addition to the new chemistry labs, there are two new earth science labs and two new biology labs.

The new science classrooms are a "huge upgrade because of the laboratory facilities available in each of them," Hentges said. "Much more hands-on learning will take place."

Students of every grade level will get to experience learning in the new spaces. Hentges said Helias students are required to take science for three years of their high school careers, and most freshmen have science their first year, meaning they will get access right away.

Helias "will certainly be a little less overcrowded," too, she said, adding the expansion should bring the school's capacity to 900 students. Helias' enrollment is currently about 700 students.

The new performing arts classrooms - a dance room and a choir room - are located on the ground floor.

Hentges said these spaces would start to be used sometime next week, too, depending on when the floors are waxed.

Helias will host an open house Feb. 4, which is intended to welcome families of prospective students but also as an opportunity to showcase the new additions to the community.

The additions to the main building represent a $7 million investment - the first phase of a four-phase improvement plan for Helias. The sports complex is phase two - estimated at $13 million.

Phase three will be construction of a softball and baseball complex estimated to cost $2.5 million, and phase four will be construction of a performing and fine arts theater and auditorium - currently only in the design phase.

Helias opened in 1956.