"It was in the 1950s," Trey answered.
Built in 1953, it's the oldest high school in Anchorage, and the only high school that shares a campus with a middle school.
"This is a good school. It's got lots of good programs. Some parts are a little run down and probably need a couple restorations, but overall it's pretty good," said Trey Chenier.
It's "pretty good," right now, but there's a vision to make the school the center of the community; a sort of cultural and educational hub for students and the people who support it.
"I had a student quote this to me: That going to school is a lot like getting on an airplane. They have to turn off their entire world, buckle in, be bored and then go back to the real world six hours later. We want to break those walls down. The real world is their education," said parent and West alumna Blythe Marston.
The master plan would expand the school to include a centralized common area and a clear path between the two schools.
Building plans show learning groups put together so teachers and mentors in programs like language arts would be in one place for students.
"This idea of creating a really strong sense of identity for both schools and the ability to let them work with each other since they are on the same campus," said Dan Mader, the project's architect.
The schools now share one library, but each would get its own, and would share with the public instead of each other.
Security is the biggest concern. As it is now, the public areas are on the first floor, while classrooms are on the second and third.
"We also know there's a lot of neighborhood concerns with traffic and parking and sort of how the school interacts with its neighbors," said Anchorage School District Assistant Superintendent Mike Abbott.
The assistant superintendent says it could be five to six years before the schools would come up on the capital improvement list, and three to four more years to renovate.
The consultants on the project don't have a cost estimate and don't know how the school district plans to pay for it.
Contact Ashton Goodell at agoodell@ktuu.com
