GILROY
– Hammers and paintbrushes are taking the place of pens and
pencils hard at work on Gilroy Unified’s campuses as crews
modernize facilities before school begins Aug. 25.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Hammers and paintbrushes are taking the place of pens and pencils hard at work on Gilroy Unified’s campuses as crews modernize facilities before school begins Aug. 25.
Gilroy High School is receiving a new coat of paint, outside lighting, repaired electrical wiring and fresh landscaping. The main gymnasium is undergoing repairs for fire damage and roof improvements.
South Valley Middle School and El Roble are both being modernized with new air conditioning and lighting.
“We are moving along quite rapidly,” said Charlie Van Meter, director of facilities and maintenance operations. “All the projects will be complete by the time school starts.”
Most of the work is being paid for with funds from Measure J, the $14-million bond voters passed in 2001, because it involves “modernization” and fulfills part of Gilroy Unified’s Facilities Master Plan. The 25-year plan calls for modernization including replacing deteriorating carpeting, electrical systems, air conditioning, building multipurpose rooms, replacing lighting and repainting facilities as needed.
With the possible exception of the main gymnasium, Gilroy High School will be new and improved when students arrive this fall. Roofing repairs were expected for the gym, but made more extensive when a fire in June damaged a part of the roof and a support beam.
“We weren’t planning on doing so much work to the gym,” said Greg Camacho-Light, assistant principal at GHS in charge of facilities.
Even with the extra work – replacing smoke-permeated acoustic tiles, repairing the roof and damaged beam, repainting the foyer to get rid of the “barbecue smell” – the gym will be ready shortly after school begins. Should the main gym not be ready, physical education classes will use the auxiliary gym.
Workers are waiting for a shipment of glue needed to replace some of the wood panels in the main gym’s floor, after which three weeks will be needed to complete the project.
“It could’ve been a lot worse,” Camacho-Light said.
All of the high school’s lockers are being replaced with a student-friendly model large enough to hold a backpack. Three-foot-tall ballard lights now accent walkways crisscrossing the campus for increased safety at night; painting will begin shortly on the exterior of each building; and landscaped areas torn up to replace electrical systems are being resodded.
The repairs at GHS will cost about $1.4-million in Measure J funds, Camacho-Light said.
Van Meter estimated the gym repairs at $350,000 including money for contingencies. Most of the fire damage repair costs will be covered by insurance, and a one-time $264,000 Cal-Fed Grant will pay for the unrelated roofing project. Leftover costs for the gym roof will be paid out of the Deferred Maintenance Fund.
Modernization at South Valley Middle School is “moving along quite rapidly,” Van Meter said.
The biggest undertaking on that campus turned out to be replacing carpeting in 41 of the classrooms. When the deteriorated carpeting was pulled up, the old tile underneath – which contains asbestos – came up also.
“If you do modernization and disturb (asbestos), then you have to remove it,” Van Meter said. “We monitor where it’s at, and when we have the opportunity to remove it, we do so.”
Crews are now in the throes of asbestos removal and will install new carpeting.
“It’s going to be a very, very tight schedule to get everything in,” said Sal Tomasello, vice principal at South Valley. “A lot of electrical work still needs to be completed and a lot of carpeting put in.”
South Valley’s modernization will use approximately $3.1 million of Measure J funds.
For El Roble School students, the most noticeable change will be the permanent walls installed to separate the classrooms. Before this fall, partition walls were all that separated one class from another, so sounds carried from classroom to classroom.
The El Roble modernization will also cost about $3.1 million, Van Meter said.
Measure J, first passed by voters in 1992 to spend $13.5 million, was extended by $14 million in June 2001. About $8.3 million of Measure J funds remains.
Measure I, the $69-million bond passed last November, will be directed toward building the new high school, rebuilding Las Animas and Eliot schools, constructing new classrooms to alleviate overcrowding and performing various repairs and upgrades.
Reroofing will be completed on the permanent classroom wing and kindergarten building at Rucker Elementary before the 2003-04 school year, as well. A contract was awarded to Legacy Roofing to complete the project for $84,460, to be paid out of Gilroy Unified’s Deferred Maintenance Fund.
Work on the roof has not started, but Van Meter is not worried about his deadline.
“It’s a two-week job,” he said.
