More than 125 donors, students and other community members gathered in ETHS’s beautiful courtyard on October 15, 2015 for the unveiling of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Theater and renovated Michael Planetarium.  The ETHS Educational Foundation raised more than $720,000 for the renovations, which included a lead gift of half a million dollars from 1963 Alum, Leonard Schaeffer ‘63. 

Understood to be the first public high school in the country to have a planetarium, ETHS upgraded the nearly 50-year-old structure to offer some of the most technologically advanced science curricula available to high school students.

Mr. Schaeffer, along with special guests Dr. Faith Vilas (ETHS ’69), Sr. Scientist of the Planetary Science Institute and Dr. Michelle Larson, President of the Adler Planetarium attended the event to get a first-hand look at the new features of the theater and planetarium.  The structure houses a projection system with surround sound which runs software for planetarium, astronomy, and geoscience lessons as well as 3D interactive environments for use by arts, biology and history classes.