Triton High School and Pentucket High School have been rivalries for decades and are often compared to each other, but what exactly do they have in common? 

Triton Regional School District consists of three towns, Newbury, Rowley and Salisbury, but the middle and high school building is located in Byfield. All three towns are coastal communities, boasting a mix of picturesque tidal marshes, beautiful beaches, a sprawling interior of secondary forests and farm lands atop glacial deposits. 

In the website, Triton Regional School District, it states, Newbury has approximately 6,600 residents, Rowley shows a total population of approximately 5,800 and Salisbury has a total population of about 8,300 residents. Many portions of these numbers are attending schools within the district. 

Triton has had a big goal of improving attendance rates. This school year, Triton High School has had a total of 560 students in the building, with 172 classes and about 15 students per class. It is predicted that the 2024-2025 school year will have a total of 566 students, 203 classes and around 16 students per class. 

Triton high school was founded in 1971 and has been in the process of getting approved for many renovations/ a new school to improve the well being of the building and what comes with it including the liveliness of staff and students. In late April/early May, town meetings will occur for an approval of a district budget. In order for the district budget to be approved, at least two out of the three towns need to approve it at the town meeting. 

According to the Pentucket high school website, the building was originally built in 1958. The old High School has been demolished, while the old Middle School is in the process of renewal along with a new turf field. 

Pentucket Regional High School has about 574 students enrolled. Merrimack sends about 38% of the total number of students, as well as Groveland. West Newbury is a little bit smaller, they send about 25% of the total population. 

The new and improved school opened to the public on Tuesday September 6th 2022. The renovations to the school consisted of updates on the HVAC system, new solar panels on the roof, a 610-seat performing arts center, flexible spaces, teacher planning spades, dedicated student entrance, day lockers and breakout areas. 

The combined building replaces the current middle school, which opened in 1967, and the high school, which opened in 1958. Construction was approved with overwhelming support in the sending communities of Groveland, Merrimac, and West Newbury. 

With the new Pentucket school being built and in its second year of being operational it shows the flaws that Triton has. Pentucket opened their new renovated school Tuesday September 6th 2022. In 2016 a new building committee was brought in to go over the budget. 

The new renovations included a new HVAC system and solar panels on the roof; they estimate that this will save them 2 million dollars in energy costs over the next 20 years. A 610-seat performing arts center for music arts and a place to gather for meetings and programs, flexible spaces/breakout rooms, teacher planning spaces where teachers can plan ahead and bounce ideas off other teachers, and dedicated student entrance where the students will be dropped off by bus in the back of the school and there is a door that leads right to the classrooms.

Sophie Marcus, a junior from Pentucket said, “With the new school we have seen test scores and policies change such as being able to get as high as an 80 on a retake in CP and honors classes.” 

“I think staff and students have more interest in performing better in the new space. Attendance is better this year, tardies have been less this year, now that people have figured out how the building works. Even traffic in the morning is better, everything just seems to be working better.” Said Pentucket social studies teacher, Keith Sherman, “Overall the impact has been positive whether its grades students are getting or morale around the building. When you look good, you feel good, so when you have a nice new building, you want to do something with it.” 

This new building works with Pentucket’s staff and students. Triton and Pentucket have very similar numbers based on attendance and how many kids are in both High Schools. Attendance numbers have gone up ever since Pentucket went through the change of a new building. Triton’s numbers are low and attendance rates have been a constant struggle for many years now, maybe a new building could change that for Triton as well.