The $55-million Senior Secondary School planned for Prospect was designed "for the 21st century,'' the Education Minister said this week.

The Hon. Clarence Terceira unveiled an artist's rendering of the 200,000-square-foot school that is slated to open in September of 1997.

Rooms for robotics, cosmetology, dance, electronics, marketing, and textiles, and labs for transportation, construction, and computers will be included.

The school is to be built around an improved 500-seat Ruth Seaton James Auditorium at Prospect.

Designed by C.A. Ventin Architect Ltd. of Toronto, the two-storey school is to have gabled roofs, a clock tower, and open courtyards at either end. The exterior will be rendered masonry, likely Bermuda pink.

As part of the Island's Education reforms that will see the introduction of Middle Schools, Prospect is to accommodate up to 1,200 students as one of two Senior Secondary Schools.

The other Senior Secondary School will be a redesigned Berkeley Institute.

Plans and a budget for changes at Berkeley were not yet determined, Dr.

Terceira said.

"In the past, you were either academic, or you went into vocational training and technology,'' Dr. Terceira said. "That whole concept has to be completely done away with.

"I want to see bright students doing things with their hands and doing things with technology.'' Mr. John Morbey, the Education Ministry's facilities manager, said all teaching rooms would be computer-equipped and "technology areas will be state-of-the-art.'' And the school would be available for use by the community, he said. The gymnasium would be large enough for two practice basketball courts or one match court with bleachers. The nine-acre site would also have a full-size football pitch and a couple of smaller fields.

Mr. Earle Wood, project manager for the restructuring, said programmes offered at the new school would "prepare students for anything they may face in the future.

"It will maximise their potential to have success in whatever endeavour they pursue,'' he said.

Planning Department approval has been given. Working drawings are to be ready by the end of this year, with major construction to begin in April of 1995.

Dr. Terceira said he did not know what the school would be called and he was toying with the idea of having a public contest to come up with a name.

STATE OF THE ART -- Robotics and cosmetology are to replace more traditional classrooms at the $55-million Prospect Senior Secondary School. Shown here in an artist's rendering, it is slated to open in 1997.