The new school building opened midway through the 1970–71 academic year as F.W. Buchholz Junior-Senior High, with Principal James "Jim" Temple. The school opened for its first classes at 7 am on Wednesday January 6, 1971. Principal Temple had received special permission from the school board to use Monday and Tuesday for teacher orientation and planning, before welcoming students on Wednesday: those two days were "made up" by canceling teacher work days planned for February 5 and 12. Because of overcrowding at GHS and a limited fleet of school buses, the school board was hard-pressed to develop a city- and county-wide bus plan capable of carrying out a court-ordered cross-bussing integration plan. Of the initial 1,160 students attending Buchholz that first year, nearly 800 rode buses. There simply were not enough buses to allow every school to begin classes at a "normal" hour, so Buchholz (and Westwood) were shifted to an "early" day schedule, with classes held from 7am to 1pm for the remainder of the academic year.