Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 10/06/1999 All articles from this issue

Egan Intermediate School unveils renovation plans

printer friendly version

By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos could see its first two story junior high school as early as next year. The Los Altos School District unveiled preliminary renovation plans for Egan Intermediate School in a special meeting Sept. 23. The plans call for a two-story structure with 10 classrooms, a library and media center and administrative offices, and a new science wing with four classrooms.

Egan is slated to get a face lift next summer as part of the first phase of the district's construction plan, which was approved last November with the passage of a $94.7 million bond measure.

Under Egan's preliminary plans, the district will replace all the school's portable classrooms with permanent buildings and renovate each existing classroom's electricity, plumbing and paint.

A two-story structure will replace the current locker room building in the front portion of the school near the Portola Avenue parking lot.

School officials said it would be too expensive to update the locker room and bring it up to code.

Principal Brenda Dyckman said the proposed plan drew mostly positive feedback from the community during the meeting.

"The consensus in the room was that the design is great, and we're doing a good job," she said.

Dyckman described the plan as "tailored for educational purposes. It was driven by teachers, so everything is designed to make (the classroom) really useful to teachers."

She said each classroom will include a teaching wall, a moveable wall of white boards, and a pull-down screen that teachers may use to write lessons on or project images against. Dyckman said the walls were designed to "maximize a teacher's flexibility in delivering instruction."

The proposed plans include the expansion of the main parking lot to include about 50 more parking spaces.

Dyckman said some neighbors at the Sept. 23 meeting expressed concern about traffic.

According to the school district construction schedule, two school sites will be renovated each year beginning summer 2000, with construction work expected to be finished at all sites by the summer of 2005.

The renovation work at Egan is scheduled to begin in early summer 2000 and be completed by fall 2001.

School officials said the district chose to include Egan in the first phase of its districtwide construction plan so the same students would not be affected by construction projects during both their elementary and junior high school years.

Throughout the district's construction program, students will rotate to a portable school or "camp" - located at Egan and Blach Junior High - while their school is under construction.

The site plan for the self-contained temporary school at Egan is currently in progress, school officials said.

The temporary school could be placed on Egan's current soccer field near the corner of San Antonio Road and Portola Avenue.

Covington School will also be renovated as part of the district's first phase of construction.

Blach is scheduled to be renovated in the district's second construction phase.

For more information about the Los Altos School District's renovation plans, call the district office at 941-4010.