PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After three years of renovations, Murrell Dobbins High School's extreme makeover of sorts can now be considered a cut above the rest.
Plush new chairs line the new barbering suite at Dobbins High in Strawberry Mansion. The top-to-bottom renewal brought in new equipment and furnishings for all of the school's career and technical education (CTE) programs, ranging from computer networking and culinary arts to sports marketing and graphic design.
Senior class President Jeremiah Rodriguez said this modernization means the world to students.
"You often feel unappreciated, unwanted, uncared for in a community school like this. So with the renovation, it was just like a fresh breath of air," he said.
Barbering teacher Desmond Kirton said his students have a new energy when they practice cutting hair.
"All the chairs and the shampoo areas, and we have a whole series of classrooms separately — it's wonderful," he said. "Everything is state-of-the-art."
Dobbins is one 30 CTE high schools in the School District of Philadelphia, in which all students are enrolled in a CTE program from 10th grade onward.
"It's an investment of $39 million," noted Superintendent William Hite at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "It reflects our commitment as a district to providing high-quality programming."
As for the future, Hite said the district is borrowing $500 million to finance improvements at another 112 schools — replacing two schools and building a new one.
