GILROY
– The Gilroy High School campus is being prepped this week for a
major campus-wide modernization project that will include building
expansions and new construction – including a 30,000-square-foot
Student Services Center.
The makeover
– expected to take 18 months to complete – will begin this
summer.
GILROY – The Gilroy High School campus is being prepped this week for a major campus-wide modernization project that will include building expansions and new construction – including a 30,000-square-foot Student Services Center.
The makeover – expected to take 18 months to complete – will begin this summer.
The district is getting a head start on its summer projects while the school’s 2,300 students are enjoying their 10-day spring break. In fact, crews arrived at GHS early Friday morning, the first day of the break, to begin digging trenches both on campus and in the parking lot for utilities. They will also begin preparing asphalt pads for new portable classrooms that will be installed later this year.
When the work is done in fall 2005, GHS will look markedly different, with an expanded library, new aquatics building and student center. The projects are expected to cost about $20 million, with funds coming from Measure J, Measure I and the state.
In the meantime, students, school staff and campus neighbors can expect at least some inconvenience.
The GHS campus will be shut down this summer and summer school classes will be held at Brownell Academy Middle School and Mt. Madonna Continuation High. The school’s pool will also be closed, leaving the city with only one pool for summer recreation activities.
“It seems a little bit of putting up with stuff this summer will pay off a lot in the future,” said Barry McKay, who lives on 10th Street near the school and attended an informational meeting about the projects.
Construction on the student center will require a move for the teachers and services currently housed in a building on the southwest corner of campus. The “G” building will be demolished to make room for the 30,000-square-foot building that should be a dramatic improvement.
“It will be a one-stop-shop for students,” said Jan Jensen, a construction manager for Gilroy Unified School District.
Besides housing counselors and the Associated Student Body office, the student center will house a full-service cafeteria with room for 600 students to eat inside and shelter for another 600 outside. Students currently crowd into the gym or classrooms on rainy days.
Students will no longer need to dread those rainy days because the district plans to eliminate drainage problems that have plagued the school’s grassy – and often muddy – areas.
“Luckily, this winter we had a really wet season, and we were able to look at where it floods and where it pools up,” Jensen said. “So hopefully, we can clear those problems up.”
Jensen said the district actually took photographs of the areas that frequently flood on rainy days so the contractor would know exactly how severe the problem is.
The Garlic Festival Association contributed $250,000 for the student center and will be recognized with a Garlic Festival emblem etched into part of the glass that will make up a large portion of the exterior.
Because the center will occupy space where students currently purchase and eat their lunches, GHS will have a lunch stop near the administration building and another on the west side of the gym, where seven new portables will house teachers displaced from the “G” building.
The aquatics building will be replaced with a larger one “with a roof that doesn’t leak,” said Greg Camacho-Light, GHS vice principal.
It will house an office, rest rooms and the athletic trainer’s office.
This summer’s expansion of the library and bookroom by 10,000 square feet will roughly double the size of the existing library. The new library will include two computer areas, more seating for students and more room for books. Students will enter the library next year from a new entrance that faces the school’s quad.
The adjacent administration building will be remodeled to re-arrange offices and create conference rooms that can be used by campus groups.
Other improvements are planned this summer, including upgrading the fire alarm and public announcement systems and adding some 200 spaces to the student parking lot.
“Because it’s such a tight timeline, they will be doing six months of work in 72 days’ time,” Jensen said.
The district will install a security system and is working with Gilroy police to determine how many cameras to install and where to place them.
“Hopefully, that will decrease some of the vandalism on campus during the weekend because we can record, so … we can catch them if it happens,” said Charlie Van Meter, GUSD director of facilities and maintenance operations.
Construction on the student center will begin this summer, but continue through the school year, until the fall of 2005. The district will take precautions to separate the site from the rest of the campus, Jensen said. A fence will keep students out and construction crews in. The equipment will access the site via a road for construction traffic only that connects the student center to 10th Street along the west side of the campus. The construction workers will also wear identification badges while on campus and will abide by strict rules regarding appropriate language.
“There will be no warning given, they will simply be asked to leave,” Jensen said.
