It will be difficult to tell who the new students are at Baldwin High School when school starts Sept. 8.

That's because all 1,500 students will be arriving at a school that has a new academic wing with 71 classrooms, two three-story atriums, a new administrative office suite and a new main entrance, fronting on Route 51.

The new wing is such a significant change to the high school that maps will be distributed to students when they arrive.

"I keep telling any student who is going to be new to the school this year not to worry because everyone will be coming back to a new school. No one will know their way around," said Principal Todd Keruskin.

The new academic wing, which is the third phase of construction in the $63 million renovation project, is housed in an arched structure that runs along the front of the building. It connects to the rest of the school at the north and south ends of the building and via a walkway in the center.

On either side of the walkway are three-story atriums with skylights that allow natural light to shine into the windows on the inside of the arch.

"All of the classrooms will have natural light," Dr. Keruskin said.

The 71 new classrooms replace the approximately 60 classrooms in the old academic wing, which was demolished.

Motion detectors in each of the classrooms turn the lights on when people enter. The lights go off after five minutes if there is no activity in a room.

Every classroom has a projector in its ceiling and either an electronic SMART or Promethean interactive white board, many of which were financed through the $600,000 the district has received in Classrooms for the Future state grants in the past two years.

The same color scheme of purple and white -- the school colors --mixed with black and grey is carried into the new academic wing from the athletic, vocational and science lab areas, completed last year.

The opening of the new wing means students will no longer have to walk outside across a parking lot between classes to get from one end of the building to the other.

But because the band room, which was an appendage on the north end of the building, has been demolished, band students will have to walk to the auxiliary gym at the football stadium for class while a new band and choral rooms are built. Chorus classes will be held in a large-group instruction room.

The new main entrance to the building will be in the center of the arch. Students will still be dropped off by their buses at the south end of the building.

But any visitors, or students who arrive at school after 7:45 a.m., will come in through the main entrance, be greeted by security, and walk up two flights of stairs to the reception area. There also is an elevator at the main entrance for those who can't walk the steps.

The reception area is located next to the attendance office so students can get whatever passes they need to get into class. Students and visitors will have to be buzzed into the classroom wing at the reception area.

The opening of the new wing means that teachers get their planning rooms back. Last year, because the demolition of the old classroom wing left the district scrambling for space, planning rooms were given up for classrooms.

Also last year, the old gym was divided into 10 temporary classrooms. A new floor is being installed at the gym and will be available for use later this year.

In addition to the construction of a new band room and choral room, phases four and five of the renovation project include upgrades to the auditorium, including the installation of new acoustic panels and the enlargement of nearby rest rooms. Dressing rooms also will be constructed.

There will be 65 security cameras in the new high school, which also includes the new 2,000-seat gymnasium and six-lane swimming pool that were part of the previous phase of renovation.

During the previous phase a television studio was built, and the curriculum has been expanded to include two video production courses. Those classes will produce a morning newscast, which will be viewed in all classrooms, Dr. Keruskin said.

In addition to the building renovation, there is new turf being installed at the football field and a new track. The stadium also will be painted.

By the time the renovation project is completed sometime in 2009, about 80 percent of the building, much of which was built in 1939, will be new.