The $96 million project — expanding and renovating the Middletown High School and building a new, adjacent middle school — is nearing the end of the first of three construction stages.
Middletown School officials contract airplane flyovers once a month to view the massive project from above.
When all Middletown students return to classes on Aug. 22, those at the high school will see a radically modernized building.
Many of the students will be learning in some of the most technologically sophisticated classrooms in the region. As the construction continues through the 2017-2018 school year, more student learning spaces and the county’s newest prep sports arena will open for use.
All the work on the new, 135,000-square-foot middle school — and the 2,200-seat arena attached to both schools — will be completed by August 2018, said George Long, business manager for the Butler County school system.
The new gym will open in December with inaugural boys and girls basketball games.