Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Wolf Hanisch, a chemistry and physics teacher at Homestead High School in Cupertino, exclaims, "This is like Christmas," as he marvels over his new laptop computer. Compaq Computer Corp. donated computers to 20 Homestead teachers as part of a pilot laptop program. The goal is to supply every student with a computer by the year 2004.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Area schools are in the midst of remodeling, reconstruction as new year begins
While many anticipate the potential catastrophes that the new millennium will bring, local school districts see this as a time of change - for the better. All are in the midst of major school facelifts that officials say will invigorate and bring their districts into the 2000s.
Officials at the Fremont Union High School District, where about 290 Los Altos students attend, describe this year as a "bench mark" in the district's history. The district will have completed its first phase of school facelifts by the end of this year and has already introduced a cutting-edge technology plan that will bring laptop computers into every classroom.
For the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, the end of its sometimes noisy and disruptive five-year renovation work at its two high schools is nearing completion. Both schools are currently applying for accreditation from the California Association of Schools and Colleges. Administrators describe this year as "exciting" and a "great opportunity" for long-term improvement.
Officials at the Los Altos School District, grades K-8, say their schools are on the "threshold of exciting and challenging changes."
The district will begin the first phases of its plan to reorganize space and upgrade its facilities this academic year.
Similarly, the Mountain View School District will work this year to finalize the first site plans in its $36 million renovation plan voters approved last year.
Cupertino is finishing up its major construction plan with renovation work on its four middle schools.
Fremont Union
The Fremont Union High School District last week embarked on a bold new pilot program that promises to put laptop computers in the hands of every student by 2004.
"This is red letter day in the history of the district," said superintendent Joe Hamilton during the kickoff of the laptop program last week. "The challenge for us is to take education and try to fit it into the age. All students will have laptops in their hands. It will look just as normal as students carrying a binder," he said.
Hamilton said studies show that computers enhance student performance. He also believes the program will help equalize the district's diverse student population, enabling all students to have a laptop computer.
Under the program, the district will provide participating teachers with laptop computers and a year's training funded through its Digital Highway grants. The district's foundation will then work with every freshman parent over the next four to five years to help them purchase laptops for their children, until every child in the district has a laptop.
"A lot of people say we can't do this. If we can't pull it off in this district, in the middle of Silicon Valley, that's a sad commentary," Hamilton said. "There's no reason why we can't do this."
Approximately 40 teachers from Homestead High School, where Los Altos students attend, and Monta Vista High School met Aug. 18 at Compaq Computer Corp. in Cupertino during a kickoff celebration, where they received laptops and their first technical instruction.
"This is like Christmas," said Homestead chemistry and physics teacher Wolf Hanisch, while unwrapping his laptop. Teachers at the kickoff said the laptops will change the way they teach their lessons.
More obvious changes are the facelifts at the district's five schools that began this summer under the district's $144 million renovation plan. The restrooms in the main gym and the cafeteria at Homestead were among the first construction projects. Future renovations at the school include adding classrooms, expanding the library, repairing a leaky roof and upgrading lighting, flooring, and carpeting.
Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District
Students at both Mountain View and Los Altos high schools may find their trek between classes difficult this year, as the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District enters its fourth - and perhaps most challenging - year of campus renovations.
The demolition this summer of each school's multi-purpose room, cafeteria, quad area and surrounding classroom buildings has rendered huge portions of each campus out of service for the remainder of the academic year.
Food service is limited to portable stands without covered eating areas. There are no central bells or clocks to signal when classes begin, and Mountain View High was without water or gas as of last week due to the construction. Los Altos High doesn't have enough lockers for its 1,390 students and will temporarily lose 139 student-parking spaces.
The construction is all part of the district's five-year, $58 million renovation plan that voters approved in 1995. Through the plan, nearly half of the classrooms at each school have already been renovated. The next phase of classroom renovations are scheduled to be completed in December at both schools.
Architect Mary Morris of the Steinberg Group of San Jose designed the new multi-purpose buildings, which include a 350-seat auditorium, a new kitchen, dining areas for students and staff; new quads; and a 1,300-square-foot library at each campus that will replace the razed buildings by fall 2000.
School officials admit this year's construction poses many inconveniences, but nothing they can't handle.
"The end is in sight. We can see where we're going," said Mountain View principal Pat Hyland from the temporary administration building currently housed in a portable office in the back of the campus. "There's going to be some real happy people when we get there. The trick is to make people OK with it now. The kids have been great. They're very resilient and have a 'can-do' spirit."
Flexibility is key to getting through the construction, she said.
Patricia Montabano, who is the new principal at Los Altos High this year, said she sees the construction as "a wonderful opportunity to be creative. It will pose some challenges, but the I think the staff and kids will pull together. I think we will be able to maintain the integrity of our academic instruction, activities and athletic programs," she said. Montabano replaced principal David Brazer who resigned last spring.
New science and art buildings opened at each school this week. The new buildings feature 10 state-of-the-art science rooms, each with lecture and lab space and specialized fixtures and equipment. The art rooms include a photo lab, a darkroom, drawing room and sculpture studio.
"I'm definitely looking forward to this," said earth science teacher Christi Nelson, as she moved into her new classroom in the science building at Los Altos High last week. Nelson said she had to share a classroom last year that wasn't equipped with lab space for experiments. The second-year teacher said she wasted a lot of class time changing rooms whenever she wanted her students to perform an experiment.
"This is so exciting. It's all the little things that you don't realize that make teaching easier," said Kim Rogers, a chemistry and biology teacher at Mountain View High, referring to the lab tables, sinks and other state-of-the art features in her classroom.
Academically, both schools will be studying their programs as part of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation process.
Los Altos School District:
The Los Altos School District opened its doors today with more students, overcrowded facilities and higher test scores.
The district jumped the first hurdle in its plan to update its nine school sites and relieve overcrowding with the passage of a $94.7 million bond for facility renovations last November. But overcrowded campuses and aging school buildings remain top concerns this academic year, as the school community prepares for the first phases of construction.
Superintendent Marge Gratiot said more students registered this summer than she has ever seen. She said the district anticipated 3,900 students to show up for the first day of classes today at the district's eight schools, approximately 4 percent more than last year.
The district has had the challenge of placing all of these students in its six elementary schools and two junior highs until it reopens Covington School in fall 2000 as a seventh elementary school.
The administration had to transfer some students to other schools within the district because certain sites were too full. And they had to deny enrollment to transfer students living outside of the district's boundaries - many who had been enrolled in Los Altos schools for several years, Gratiot said.
The district had to add more portables to its campuses this year in order to temporarily house its growing student population. At Loyola School last week, open trenches surrounded the one-and-a-half new portables on site. Crews were scheduled to work through the weekend to hook up the additional electricity needed to power the portables for opening day.
Gratiot remains confident that the renovations will not disrupt the district's academic routine.
"I think our plan to move students away from campus while there's construction is going to give them a normal academic year. That plan solves safety and interruption problems," Gratiot said about the district's plan to set up temporary school sites at each junior high campus for elementary students.
The district is currently developing site plans for Covington School and dividing its internal student boundaries. Gratiot said the district plans to look at the site plans in mid-September and hold a public meeting on boundaries in September or October, when the demographer finalizes population projections.
While the district's facility plans may be controversial, its academic reputation is not. Student performance is even stronger than last year.
"I think it's fair to look at our test scores and say what we're doing is pretty successful," Gratiot said.
The district received top marks in an Associated Press analysis of California standardized school test scores. The district ranked first in reading scores in grades 4 and 8, with 95 percent of students receiving scores above the 50th percentile. The district ranked first in the math scores at the 8th-grade level, with a 96 percent of students above the 96th percentile.
Mountain View
The Mountain View School District expects to open the doors at its six schools next week with 20 new teachers, 3,150 students - about the same as last year - and initial site plans for Castro and Graham schools.
Superintendent Patricia Bubenick said the district is in solid shape. Renovation work is scheduled to begin this summer; the district expanded its two-way language program, which teaches English- and non-English speaking students in both English and Spanish, into grade 3; and the district entered into a partnership with the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce to raise funds for its school libraries. She said the district raised $250,000 over the past three years for its school libraries.
Cupertino:
Superintendent William Bragg said the district will spend this year finishing its modernization program and examining and refining programs already in place in order to better align its academics with the state's standards.
"We need to make some adjustments," Bragg said, referring to district results from the state's standardized test. "There were some real gaps in the areas of science."
Bragg said the district is nearing completion of its facilities plan, finishing with the modernization of its four middle schools. He said 23 schools have already been modernized. He said the district still needs to replace its 24 temporary classroom with permanent modulars.