BIXBY, Okla. — Work is officially underway on a new state-of-the-art building for Bixby High School after the district held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning.

The dirt is officially moving on the $72 million building expected to open in Fall 2024.

Dirt also continues to move for the new homes that just keep sprouting up all over Bixby. With them, new families are calling Bixby home, and Bixby Public Schools is their home school district.

“We’ve experienced 18 percent growth in just the last few years,” Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Rob Miller said.

In his relatively short time in Bixby, Miller has witnessed that growth take off.

“When I arrived here in 2018, our largest class in high school was 422 students,” Miller said. “When this building opens in 2024, two of the classes will have more than 600 students.”

The current high school campus dates back to 1961. Select buildings will be demolished to make way for the new building.

The new building will bring 200,000 square feet of state-of-the-art classrooms, college-style lecture calls, a coffee bar, tv studio, collaboration spaces and other new spaces to support a 21st-century curriculum.

“It’s just going to be looking forward in terms of what students need to be educated for 21st-century jobs,” he said.

The $72 million dollars in funding--coming from bonds voters approved in 2016 and 2022.

Miller says most existing buildings on the campus will remain—for now. They plan to renovate some them to bring them up to match the feel of the new building.

With the district moving to a larger athletic conference, the high school’s stadium will see some work as well. Miller says the 2022 bond package provided funds for a minor expansion that will get underway soon.

He says he expects another bond package later this decade will earmark funding to give the stadium a total overhaul and expansion.

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