Gilroy
– Around Gilroy, the sight of unfinished school buildings and
construction crews still at work begs the question: Will campuses
will be ready for students on Aug. 30?
District and construction officials say they will, but that
doesn’t mean work will finish before then. In fact, construction at
Gilroy High School, El Roble and Glen View elementary schools won’t
end for another year.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Around Gilroy, the sight of unfinished school buildings and construction crews still at work begs the question: Will campuses will be ready for students on Aug. 30?
District and construction officials say they will, but that doesn’t mean work will finish before then. In fact, construction at Gilroy High School, El Roble and Glen View elementary schools won’t end for another year.
On a recent walking tour of the GHS campus, Principal Bob Bravo pointed out some of the highlights of this summer’s work.
“It’s a little tough to get work done, sometimes,” he said over the sounds of construction on the library, which is adjacent to administrators’ offices.
The library and bookroom expansion is one of three major projects at GHS that will continue through the coming school year. The building, which can be seen from Tenth Street, will nearly double in size and will include a new entrance that faces the school’s quad rather than the administration building.
Also ongoing are the school’s first student center and a new aquatics building. The long-awaited student center, complete with dining room for students, a cafeteria and student services offices, will go up where a classroom building stood until this summer.
Continuing construction will make for some inconveniences, Bravo noted. More classes will be held in portables near the gymnasium, and students must squeeze past the fenced-off student center site.
Among the work already completed is the student parking lot of Princevalle Street, which was resurfaced, has additional spaces, and was given a wider entrance/exit and a bus turnaround for sports teams.
“The biggest thing is, (across campus), the complete electrical infrastructure was removed and replaced – and we’re talking miles of new wire,” said Jan Jensen, Gilroy Unified School District construction manager for GHS.
The campus intercom, clock, and fire alarm systems also were replaced. School staff and city police will be testing the fire alarm system early next week.
Farotte Construction of Gilroy completed modernization of classrooms and the theater. Dilbeck and Sons of Salinas is constructing new buildings and Giaccalone Electrical Services of Gilroy is handling electrical work.
Students and teachers at two elementary schools also will be putting up with construction next year, but for good cause. Once multi-purpose rooms are in at El Roble and Glen View, no GUSD elementary school will be without one, save Las Animas, which is slated to move to a new campus.
El Roble and Glen View each have new classrooms that should be ready for teachers and students by this weekend, said Charlie Van Meter, GUSD’s director of facilities, planning and construction.
Rucker Elementary School also is getting six new classrooms. Four old portables on the site will be removed after school starts.
“Our plan is, Rucker is going to be the last school that we move,” said Gary Corlett, GUSD’s construction manager at Rucker. “Hopefully, it’ll be done this weekend – if not, in the early part of next week.”
South Valley Middle School’s quad will have a new and much more welcoming look for students this year. Workers are putting finishing touches on the area’s additional landscaping, the concrete was replaced and drainage installed to prevent flooding, Van Meter said. New lunch tables are due to arrive early next week.
The library expansion to make room for computers and a more visible entrance also should be finished early next week.
Teachers representatives will get to check out the classrooms to make sure they’re ready for move-in, said Michelle Nelson, president of the Gilroy Teachers Association, who will do a walk-through today and tomorrow. After construction last summer, some teachers were moving into classrooms before they were completely finished, and didn’t get things in order until the night before school started.
“The contractor might say, ‘It looks fine to me’, but as classroom teachers, we can see that maybe there’s some things that (aren’t),” Nelson said. “The main issue is, they weren’t done and for teachers to begin teaching the first day, they need to get into their rooms, they need to put up the bulletin boards. … Speaking for myself, I like to get the room environment ready, then sit down and plan my lessons.”
