On Aug. 18, Michael Henson and the Porterville Unified School District (PUSD) will open the doors to a 20 acre, $19 million facility that will teach high tech engineering and design courses to Tulare County public school students. The unique facility is located adjacent to Strathmore High School and has 156 freshman students enrolled from around the district.

Harmony Magnet Academy is a public college preparatory facility that will enroll students in either the school of engineering or the school of performing arts. The good news for Tulare County students: the school is free and is open to any student in the county school system. There will be no GPA or prerequisite requirements for enrollment.

PUSD began looking at the idea of building another small high school in the district in 2005 and a mere three years later Harmony Magnet Academy has arrived. Everything began after Strathmore joined PUSD in the 2004-2005 school year.

ìThe whole thought generated because of the success of Strathmore High School,î Henson said. Henson is the principle for both Strathmore High School and Harmony Magnet Academy. ìThe district has seen how effective a small school can be.î

In 2005, PUSD applied for and received a special small high school construction grant from the state. With the State focused on keeping class sizes small, the grant was a 60/40 match grant instead of a traditional 50/50 grant. That began the process to make a new school a reality.

The Strathmore site was then included in a national effort to better strengthen the engineering workforce through high school education. The National Academy Foundation (NAF) partnered with Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) to begin a national initiative to expose high school students to careers in engineering. NAF is aiming at building 110 academies by the year 2010 and it began by opening 13 academies in the 2008-2009 academic year. Among those 13 schools is Strathmoreís Harmony Magnet Academy.

In 2006, the district submitted its construction plans and quickly broke ground on the project.

Now, the academy will make its way into the public eye with a dedication ceremony at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 13. The dedication will reveal a high tech, state of the art facility complete with computer labs, engineering software, audio electronics, a video production studio, an internet library and a 900 person capacity performance venue.

With all of the high-tech perks, future employment opportunities and increased college potential, Harmony Magnet Academy will enforce stricter graduation requirements than the other PUSD schools and the curriculum will all be college preparatory.

ìWeíre going to provide a challenging work environment,î Henson said. ìStudents will leave here college or job ready.î

The facility is made up of three buildings. The main building will house 20 classrooms and four science labs.

The administration building will have offices for the staff and faculty along with a 30-station graphic computer lab, a tech lab with an adjoining Computer Aided Design (CAD) computer lab, a video production room and a 30-station library.

The multipurpose room will be the new home of the PUSD orchestra. The building can hold up to 900 people for performances on its large stage area. The building will also be utilized as a cafeteria and a gym. The building features a $40,000 sound system and students will be able to demonstrate their lighting designs on the performance stage.

The administration at Strathmore High school will also run Harmony. The staff includes three fulltime teachers and several part time instructors from around PUSD. The school features small class sizes on a seven-class block schedule.

The incoming freshman class is made up of 22 students from Sequoia Middle School, 22 from Strathmore Middle School, 26 from Sunnyside, 14 from Terra Bella and 13 from St. Anneís.

Students will be required to maintain a 2.0 GPA and keep their attendance at 90% to remain enrolled in the school.

Each year, Harmony Magnet will introduce a new freshman class and will eventually cater to 500 students. Enrollment is open to any students residing in Tulare County. If more students apply than the school can accommodate, all applicants will be entered in a lottery to become enrolled.

Harmony Magnet students will join Strathmore in its sports, music and extracurricular programs. The charter school will have a softball and a baseball field located on its campus at 19429 Road 228. There is also a proposal to install a competition pool.

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