New high school opens in growing city

By Melissa Maynarich, NEWS 9

MOORE, Okla. -- Moore is one of the fastest growing city's in the metro and South-Moore High School already has over one thousand students ready to start class in the new buildings.

The brand new space is 300,000 square feet and it's ready to hold 17-hundred 9th through 12th graders and 120 staff members.

"The mascot is the sabercat," South-Moore Principal Roy Smith said.

South-Moore High is Oklahoma's newest 6A school. With 120 classrooms and state of the art sports fields, the school is wired.

"We have computers throughout, LCD projectors in many classrooms and smart board technology in many classrooms," said Principal Smith.

The new facility is funded by a $30 million school bond issue and $14 million in funds from Oklahoma City's MAPS for Kids penny sales tax. The school is essential to support the rapidly growing community of Moore.

"Moore has an excellent location. You can get to work or you can get anywhere in the metro with our highway system very quickly," Moore City Manager Steve Eddy said.

With 52,000 people around town, Moore is becoming a booming metropolis. That's a 25% increase in people since the turn of the century.

"We have extensive overcrowding in our two high school and junior high school, so we're trying to alleviate crowding in all those and we're still a growing school district," Principal Smith said.

The school was designed to accomodate even more growth in Moore, and hold up to 2,400 students.

The sabercat's colors are blue, gold and red and class starts next Thursday.