Chastain Construction Update: November 2025
It’s been nearly one and a half years since Upper Learning moved off campus and into Northside, and everyone’s curiosity about the progress on our new building is still abuzz. Within the Galloway Gazette emails sent out every week, construction updates are included whether it is big or small news. This link forwards you to the Galloway Forward Campaign website where you can see mockups and the plan for the new UL building. I recently met with Kritisn Wold, who offered many insights and information regarding what is happening over at the Chastain campus.
As of the end of October or beginning of November, many important improvements have been put into place: the foundations have begun to be waterproofed, the stairwell is visible, more concrete pours have continued and the building’s roof lines are now visible. The week of October 14th, crews excavated a large area for the stormwater vault. The stormwater vault is a structure that will be completely buried once it is assembled, and it will collect stormwater to drain off the site. It is quite big, having needed 23 tractors to deliver all the supplies and with the overall dimensions of 32’ wide, 96’ long, and 10’ tall. The (rough) height of the building is visible now as we can see the masonry on stairs 2 and 3, which are topped out and outlining that height. This is big news despite it not sounding as such.
Regarding the less logistic aspects of the building, I also asked questions I thought would peak student interest. The move in date was pushed, as it is expected that students and UL faculty will begin the 2026-2027 school year still in the Northside campus, but admin still hopes that it will only be for a month or two. The class of 2027 is still expected to see and be in the new building, and this means that the current 8th graders will be the last class to experience being at the Northside campus.
When contemplating the idea of the schedule and how EL, ML, and UL will have to interact again on the same campus it brought forth interesting perspectives. The new cafeteria in the building will be the cafeteria for the entity of Galloway, with the exception that EL will be more roped off from the rest of us. With this in mind, schedules will have to be changed once again to stagger ML and UL lunches. Perhaps UL will get their 1:00PM lunch again? I certainly missed it, but I know there are many different opinions on that matter. But with this in mind, the snack shoppe is expected to make a permanent return to avoid the sounds of grumbling stomachs as noon strikes! Another point brought up in our conversation was the fact that back when UL moved to Northside, it was a big adjustment to be away from the rest of our community. As a UL student, the migration from Gresham and being with the EL and ML students to Northside and being separate from the rest of the school was certainly a weird feeling. And as the entire Upper Learning handled the change well, the change back to “normalcy” might prove to be even harder. Students will have to become used to the shared spaces again instead of having their own campus. I will admit, I thought it was nice having a separate “high school” feel rather than the usual PreK-12, but at the same time I missed being able to see my sister and kids I know from afterschool and summer camp. When talking with various EL teachers from Galloway at Play over the summer and Coach Lesley at the beginning of the school year, they all shared the same insights on how there is a weird gap where UL once inhibited and how the UL body is missed. The move back is a change I am certainly excited to see, and I am especially excited to keep the Elliot updated with news surrounding the move back–stay posted!