By the time you return from Spring Break, the halls might look a little different from the way you left them. As the first phase of the referendum renovations kick off, the classrooms in the World Language Department will be going under construction for the remainder of the school year…but what’s really happening?
Five classrooms will undergo renovations starting Friday, and will remain under construction until Summer Break begins. In the meantime, temporary walls will be in place to conceal the work being done by construction workers.
The school is taking great measures to ensure that this construction will not impact learning in the classroom. A majority of the initial teardown of classrooms will take place over break, while the rest of the noisy construction will be done after school hours.
“That back hallway will be a little tighter down by Madame Song and Jancovitch, and their office that’s across the hallway. They’ll be doing the work on the inside of the temporary walls,” Associate Principal Dr. Sassen said. “Students likely won’t even notice the work until they come back in the fall.”
Although there will be some work being done during school hours, Sassen said that this should not take away from the learning experience for students, especially those in the basement.
“The nice thing about this is that we want to make sure that when students are in the building, the footprint of the construction is really tight,” Sassen said.
The new classrooms desks, whiteboards, flooring, furniture, doors, windows, technology, and other upgraded features will ensure a positive learning experience for all students, and provide a better experience for teachers. French teacher Madame Song, whose room is one of the five in renovation this spring, understands the importance of the changes.
“It has to be done. It isn’t ideal, but I am really excited to get into a new classroom at the beginning of the year next year,” Madame Song said.
Song also explained how the new doors will affect the safety of both students and teachers. The uniformity of the doors allows them to be easily locked all hours of the school day,
A great deal of effort has gone into planning the construction at the high school. Behind the scenes, countless meetings, discussions, and preparations have involved teachers, the construction company, and the maintenance staff.
World Language Department Chair Mrs. Serrato has been in collaboration with many people to confirm that this transition between classrooms will be smooth sailing. She said that Head Custodian Jose Fajardo and Head of Maintenance Brian Carroll have prepared the new classrooms so students and staff can move in “with no interruptions.”
“They have been making it nice and changing it. They went and cleaned all of the floors and made sure that everything worked,” Serrato said.
Serrato said that this project has been a group effort between a lot of different people. They’ve taken input from students, the community, teachers, and ultimately the construction company so that the new classrooms can remain structurally sound.
Looking forward, the administration hopes to continue the construction in various phases, starting new projects in June, August, and over winter break. Sassen described this compartmentalization of construction as “hop-scotching around.”
Dr. Sassen has been working to ensure that this process runs smoothly, alongside Head of Security Mr. Anderson. Security is adding additional security personnel in the building while there is ongoing
construction for the safety of the building.
“We will be there to make sure everyone is in line and on track, while not being able to walk around the entire school. All people have IDs and background checks to ensure that they can and should be working here,” Anderson said.
Their plan is to block off the construction entrances so students can’t enter through those doors at all. For this phase, the door closest to Noble will be blocked off from students and will have extra security in place to maximize the safety. When the following phases take place, a similar tactic will be implemented in those entrances.
On top of just classrooms, there will be additional study spaces added around the building to promote group work during class and create breakout spaces for students.
“They’re not meant to be big open spaces, they’re meant to be nooks with comfortable seating and collaboration space,” Sassen said.
In the next four years, the building will undergo lots of changes that will transform the building into a more advanced and modern facility. The goal is to create the best possible learning space for the community.
“It’s a lot of people doing a lot of work so that students can have a great experience and a great building to come home to,” Serrato said.
