SALINE - Numerous school districts across the state are weighing the challenges of growing student populations with their aging and cramped school buildings - and deciding that a major commitment needs to be made to making renovations and new construction.

One of the best examples of this is in the Saline Area School District, where Granger Construction and the building trades are erecting a new high school, the most notable building being built as part of a $124.5 million bond issue passed in the district two years ago.

The bond has allowed the district to build the new high school and a recently completed new elementary school, and has given the district the opportunity to upgrade technology infrastructure and renovate existing buildings.

The 510,000 square-foot high school, which alone costs nearly half of the bond issue, is said to be the largest in terms of size in the state. Scheduled for completion in 2004, it's one of several new very large school projects that are ongoing in Holt, Pinckney and Walled Lake - to name just a few in Michigan.

"The new high school is definitely state of the art," said Assistant Project Manager Kevin Novak of Granger, which is acting as construction manager for the Saline district. "It will be about as much of a high-tech building that you can build today. It's going to be a great learning environment for students."

About 100 building trades workers are currently toiling on the 250-acre site, erecting steel, moving earth, and roughing in plumbing and scores of electrical and communication "floor boxes," which will poke above the finished floor in classrooms throughout the school and provide convenient data and electrical service for teachers and students.

The Saline High School project will include a three-story academic wing, an 1,100-seat performing arts center, five full-size gymnaisiums, including one that seats 2,500. The project also includes an eight-lane swimming pool that includes a depth-adjustment feature that hydraulically raises and lowers the floor.

School Superintendent Ellen Ewing said the Saline schools community contributed input into what the new construction and renovation should include. The community, she said, "is focused on maintaining the quality of life that people currently enjoy. People are focused on being a learning community and they were involved in the decision-making, they supported the bond issue whole-heartedly." The bond issue passed with a 61 percent approval.

SCHEDULED FOR COMPLETION in 2004, the new Saline High School is part of a new construction/renovation package involving five facilities in the Saline Area School District. The high school will have more than 70 classrooms on three levels and accommodate more than 2,000 students.

A FLOW BOX, which contains electrical and communication ports for various classrooms at Saline High School, is installed at floor level by Troy Griffis, Sr. of IBEW Local 252 and Tri-County Electric.

Erik McGovern and Jeff Wilcox of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 190 and Boone and Darr install a supply pipe in a bathroom.