USMA IN THE NEWS

West Point plans for new prep school campus

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The U.S. Military Academy is planning for the arrival of more than 250 fresh faces. 

But they won't show up until September 2011.  

That's the deadline for building the new headquarters of the U.S. Military Academy Prep School, a one-year program designed to prepare cadet candidates for admission to West Point. 

The prep school's current home is at Fort Monmouth, an Army post in central New Jersey. In 2005, the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission - a congressional panel charged with reconfiguring the military's infrastructure - voted to close the fort and move the school to West Point. 

Cadet John Paszterko, an alumnus of the prep school and now in his third year at West Point, said he felt the move would ultimately benefit the "prepsters." 

Paszterko, a Cincinnati resident, is on an exchange program in Lyon, France. He said in a recent e-mail that being on the academy's grounds would give prep school students a "better idea of what the future would look like attending West Point, ultimately making their transition from Prepster to Cadet more fluid." 

"Basically, it will be easier for West Point to influence the Prepster climate and ensure that it is a climate consistent with that of West Point itself," he said.

Lt. Col. Kent Cassella, a West Point spokesman, said that Col. Brian Crawford, who is the West Point garrison commander, and the Army Corps of Engineers are working on plans to build a campus within a campus for some 250 prep school students and staff members.

The prep school probably will be built near Washington Gate, the current site of the academy's motor pool, Cassella said. The motor pool would be moved to a West Point parking lot off Route 293.

The new campus will include a dining hall, a barracks, an academic building, an administrative office building and several athletic fields.

Cassella said the project's estimated cost is $196 million - a figure that might change as officials consult with architects and engineers.

Construction could begin in 2009, he said. 

The prep school's move will improve communication between faculty at the prep school and the academy, Cassella said. 

"Say curriculum in math is changing somewhat here," he said. "It will be very easy for a prep school math instructor to just walk down and have a meeting with the math instructors at the academy to talk about adapting the prep school curriculum to best prepare cadets for success. 

"That's the goal of the prep school," he added. "We want to prepare them for the challenges they're going to face academically, primarily." 

Though cadets and cadet candidates may mingle at church services, clubs and games, the two student populations will largely be kept separate. 

The cadet candidates - who are not automatically guaranteed admission to the academy - will attend class separately from cadets and will have their own sports teams. "They're not in the academy yet. They're going through a preparatory school process," Cassella said. "You don't want someone to have two freshman years."