Oklahoma City Public Schools welcomed students to its newest high school campus Tuesday, a $116 million, 292,000-square-foot school on the city’s south side.
As students walked around the new Capitol Hill High School before the first day, finding their classrooms and learning the space, they were in disbelief, said Principal Shari Gateley. The students, she said, are saying, “I can’t believe this is ours.”
Funded by a nearly $1 billion school bond approved by voters in 2022, the new Capitol Hill High School was the priciest of the district’s bond projects, which include several other new schools and additions at existing sites. It’s an investment community advocates hope raises expectations for academic success.
Facilities don’t automatically create a culture of academic success, but they can help attract and retain the people who do, said Gloria Torres, a community leader and former Oklahoma City Public School board member. While on the board, she advocated for the new Capitol Hill High School to help relieve overcrowding and attract new students and families to the predominantly Latino community.
Last school year, Capitol Hill was the 28th largest high school in Oklahoma with 1,460 students. Its students scored below state averages on many measures of achievement and struggled with absenteeism. But there were bright spots, too, including a 7% improvement in average test scores in 2025 while statewide scores trended downward.
Built adjacent to the former Capitol Hill High School, a historic, 1920s Gothic-style building, the new school is strikingly modern with an angled roof, abundant glass windows and elevated bridge connecting the school to the new fieldhouse.
“The old building didn’t have modern amenities,” Torres said. “Now, we have brand new. We have so much to be proud of. It translates to so many areas.”
Fears that the district planned to demolish the historic school building, sparked by early renderings showing the campus cleared of the 1928 structure, drew backlash in 2022. For now, it remains standing as district leaders assess what to do with it.
However, the district razed the high school’s iconic, domed fieldhouse, which was plagued by structural issues and water leaks, and is in the process of tearing down the vocational education building at the site.
The new, three-story school integrated learning spaces for career pathways, including construction trades, film production, culinary arts, cybersecurity, and horticulture. There’s a modern auditorium that seats more than 900 and a full, commercial kitchen.
Brand new athletic facilities replaced the historic fieldhouse, though the scoreboard made the move. Instead of tight hallways lined with lockers, students now have wide, modern walkways with abundant clear glass windows.
Cold air blasted visitors upon entering the school Monday, and two students said it was a noticeable change from the old building.
“We have AC now,” said Capitol Hill student America Fuentes.
The district retrofitted the old Capitol Hill High School with air conditioning decades ago, but it wasn’t very efficient.
The idea to build new rather than remodel was not without controversy. But opponents were mostly concerned with saving the old building while acknowledging the need for a new one.
Alumnus Ron Howell, class of 1960, petitioned the school board with thousands of collected signatures urging the preservation of the old Capitol Hill High School. He wanted to see the district gut, remodel and add onto the old building to give students an updated facility with a smaller price tag.
“I’m not unhappy that the kids have a new building; I just think they could have spent the money differently,” Howell said.
If the goal was improving academic achievement, a new building wasn’t the answer, said Howell, a retired educator who now lives in Edmond. What Capitol Hill needed was updated facilities, higher teacher salaries, more support staff and more programs for struggling students.
He said that’s evident by a lack of significant improvement at three other district high schools — Douglass, U.S. Grant and John Marshall — since moving to new buildings about 20 years ago.
Sean McDaniel, who was Oklahoma City Public Schools’ superintendent when the district proposed the 2022 bond, said he recognizes the nostalgia around the architecturally significant building, but it wasn’t an appropriate environment for student learning anymore.
Early on, Capitol Hill served a predominantly white, working-class neighborhood. An influx of Latino residents came in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Last year, 99% of the school’s students were economically disadvantaged and half were English-language learners.
The new Capitol Hill represents opportunity and renewed pride, he said.
“I don’t know that I’m sappy enough to call it a new era, but it is a new time,” he said. “This is a different way to deliver education for today’s kids.”
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
