PALESTINE — When Palestine High School students return to class in two weeks and a day, they will be greeted by a state-of-the-art educational facility with few peers among the state's Class 3A schools in the eyes of the district's leader.

"I know there are schools that have better this or better that," PISD Superintendent Jason Marshall said during a recent tour of the new high school, "but, for an overall facility, I just don't think you can beat it."

The first day of class for PHS students will be Monday, Aug. 27.

A ribbon cutting and building dedication for the new PHS facility, meanwhile, is set for Sunday, Aug. 19, with festivities to kick off at 1:45 p.m.

The new high school is the crown jewel of a $64 million bond package overwhelmingly approved by PISD voters in May 2009. The high school accounted for roughly half of the total bond, according to district leaders.

Two gyms — a competition gym and an auxiliary gym — will give the high school the ability to "play six (basketball) games in three time slots in this facility," Marshall said.

The competition gym, which seats approximately 1,200 people, boasts an overhead scoreboard. There are chair back seats in the middle section on the facility's home side.

Fans attending games will be able to enjoy refreshments outside the gym, but not miss any action as television monitors will broadcast the game live. This is part of the school's new broadcast journalism class, which receives funding through a $5 million TIF (Telecommunications' Infrastructure Fund) grant spread over three years.

Valedictorians of  the school will be honored with their names displayed in the gyms.

The award-winning Palestine High School Wildcat Band moves from cramped quarters to a larger facility with top notch acoustics, lockers, storage and four practice rooms. There is a smaller hall adjacent to the main band hall.

The facility's new 758-seat auditorium, complete with a loading dock near the rear of the stage and a maroon curtain, has a sound booth and will be used for theatre performances, assemblies and other functions.

Television monitors behind the stage lets the show's actors know what's happening on the stage and when they're up.

Connected to the auditorium is a so-called "black box theatre" which allows schools to practice their one-act play prior to a competition.

"It's first class," Marshall said.

The school's Lecture Hall seats approximately 130 people and will be suitable to accomodate a class meeting by individual grade, testing or a public speaker.

There will be more than a dozen 72-inch televisions spread throughout the PHS campus, with the screens likely displaying announcements prior to first period, the superintendent said. If it's a Monday morning, the previous Friday's football game might be playing, he added.

Prominent news events and other appropriate  programming could be shown as well, according to Marshall.

Approximately $500,000 of new kitchen equipment in the cafeteria will allow the district to meet federal guidelines on food preparation and efficiently serve the school's 800-plus students.

"You've got a lot of kids to feed in a short period of time," Marshall said.

As one might expect in today's educational climate, the superintendent said the high school will have "several computer labs throughout the campus."

School officials have been battling the rumor that the high school's library will not have books.

"It won't (however) look like the library of old," Marshall noted, "where there's rows and rows of books."

 All in all, Marshall believes the district's patrons will like the finished product.

"I think it's outstanding," Marshall said. "I think we've got the best facility we could ask for."

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Paul Stone may be contacted via e-mail at pstone@palestineherald.com