Antelope High School in on deck.

Teachers and staff at the newest school in the Roseville Joint Union High School District were busily prepping for the inaugural crop of freshmen and sophomores that will swarm the campus come next Thursday – all 901 of them.

That’s up from an enrollment of 825 in early July, and much higher than earlier projections of about 700 students to start.

“They’re still coming in droves,” Principal John Becker said last week. “There hasn’t been a day this summer that we haven’t had people registering. Many of them were in private or charter schools and are returning to the district, and others moving into it.”

It’s a rousing start to the highly anticipated facility, which finally gives Antelope its own school – and, officials say, a community centerpiece.

Major construction at the roughly $110 million school, located at 1 Titan Drive in Antelope, is now complete (save for the pool, which hasn’t been plastered yet because of a slow-moving state approval process).

The curriculum is ready to roll, too. In addition to the district’s standard slate of college-track academics, Antelope will boast some innovative programs unique to the area.

They include implementation of Project Lead the Way, a national career-technical (or vocational education) program that gives students hands-on experience in numerous as-pects of engineering, electronics and manufacturing, as well as a program introducing students to bio-medical sciences.

The programs are part of a district effort to add career-technical options to its college-track options. The California Employment Deve-lopment Department expects a 6.5-million job boom by 2014, with three quarters of them requiring a high level of technical training, and only a quarter requiring a bachelor’s or higher.

“That school was designed in such a way that it is going to meet the standards for technology and career-technical education in a way we have not been able to in other schools up to this point,” said John Montgomery, assistant superintendent of curriculum for the district.

For instance, the four sections of Project Lead the Way will be held inside a 2,000-square-foot building specially designed for the program. It’s been split in two by a Plexiglas screen, Becker said, allowing the “clean” activities – computer-aided design and lectures – to be separated from the industrial activities taking place on the other, where students will assemble projects.

“So the teacher can be on either side of room and supervise, but it also prevents all the dust from other side coming over to the computers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Antelope will offer a four-course bio-medical sciences pilot program, also through Project Lead the Way, designed for students interested in exploring health care fields, including nursing and veterinary medicine.

Both programs are drawing intense interest from career- and college-bound students alike, Montgomery said.

“If a student were to successfully complete the biomedical program, they could pretty much write their ticket into admissions into a number of colleges and universities,” Montgomery said.

Advanced Placement courses are also on tap for the first year, officials said.

While it will open with freshmen and sophomores only, Antelope will have a full slate of grades in two years. The students primarily live in unincorporated Sacramento County, and have historically attended Dry Creek elementary and middle schools, followed by Oakmont High School.

Antelope brings to five the total number of comprehensive high schools in the district; one more, located in the West Roseville Specific Plan area, is planned for the coming years.

At more than $100 million, Antelope is by far the most expensive single project ever undertaken for the district, and comes four years after voters passed Measure J, a $79 million bond that included $30 million to build the Antelope school, as well as major capital improvement projects at each of the district’s existing sites. The district tried three times before achieving the necessary votes from Roseville residents to pass the bond.

The resulting school boasts more than 170,000 square feet of building space; joint-use recreational facilities with the Sunrise Recreation and Parks District, including an aquatics center; and all-permanent construction.

But to be successful, officials know they will have to work hard creating a positive culture on campus from what’s essentially an empty slate.

To that end, they’re counting on sports and clubs to get students involved in the nascent school community.

The school will kick off the year with all the sports offered at the established high schools – including varsity cross country, soccer and golf. Varsity football will come later.

“You name it, we’re gonna have it,” Becker said.

“As for clubs, they’re student driven. So the first few months of school that’s going to be our push to the kids – what clubs are you going to do?”

Actually, if recent interest is any indication, getting student involvement won’t be a problem.

On Monday, a steady stream of future Titans walked through the doors of the gleaming school to drop off last-minute forms. Outside, Summer Splash, a program designed to build skills of incoming ninth-graders, featured team-building exercises including “shaving-cream sculpture.”

“I’m to the point now where I want kids on campus,” Becker said. “Being away from kids this year has been pretty tough.

“It’s going to be a fun journey with them,” he added.