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| PHS master plan to take 10 years to build |
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| Written by Maddy Houk / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Wednesday, 19 December 2007 | |
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Patterson High School will be built out in six phases under a 10-year master plan that school district officials presented at Patterson Unified School District’s November and December board meetings. The plan contains about $36 million worth of improvements for a facility that eventually would house about 2,300 students. “The idea is to finish as the student population goes up,” Wheeler said. “Then, when the new high school is finished, the student population will go down. This is a broad stroke, this is a footprint design.” Planning for future upgrades kicked off with a November meeting of district administrators and Patterson High School staff, counselors, teachers and students. Those on the committee also visited other high schools in the county for ideas. The committee determined that there are not enough bathrooms on campus, and existing bathrooms need to be made accessible according to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Also, the administration office should be centralized into one location on campus, and the campus should have one front door and one entrance. More night lighting on campus is needed, and there must be more dry places for students to eat on rainy days. More lockers are needed for students, as the existing locker pavilion, now 10 years old, is too cramped and small for the student population. “I gave you a tabulation of just some of the highlights we call threads,” said Mark Wheeler, the district’s manager of facilities and construction, at the Nov. 19 school board meeting. The district has spent $10 million on improvements to the aging high school in the past year, said Steve Menge, assistant superintendent of administrative services. “A lot has been done in a year, and you’ll see there’s a lot more to do,” Menge said. High school projects will be completed in a series of two-year phases until 2018. Both the city’s rate of growth and construction costs, which will be budgeted at the board’s January meeting, could determine how quickly the projects are completed. Wheeler said the state will pay 60 percent and the district will pay 40 percent for new buildings. Plans are flexible for the future Wheeler stressed that aspects of the plan are subject to change. “These are things that are being discussed right now,” Wheeler said. “Again, things are flexible — a lot of it will follow the growth in the community.” Wheeler plugged in some estimated numbers in December after Tim Huff of Timothy Huff Architects presented the plan in phases in November. “We’re really interested in finding what the existing issues are on campus,” Huff said. The recent revamping of the community stadium, gym modernization, shower/locker addition and modernization of the 130 and 140 classroom wings at the high school are listed as the first phase of the master plan. Phase II, which would run from 2008 to 2009, contains 10 projects. They include modernizing the high school’s ag building, developing a drop-off place for students and for deliveries, installing more campus lockers and creating new parking lots. Those projects would cost about $4.9 million. The Phase III plan, scheduled for 2010 to 2011, would entail spending $12 million on a new administration structure, lunch courtyards, landscaping, auditorium modernization and more parking and fencing. The $10 million fourth phase, scheduled from 2012 to 2013, would include modernizing the attendance office and turning the student services building into a library. The existing library would become a career center and resource center. A new classroom building would be built for science and vocational-education students. Phase V, at a cost of $8.1 million, would include demolishing the old administration building, converting the existing music room to a large meeting room and installing campus security features. The $510,000 sixth phase entails taking out portable classrooms, resurfacing parking lots and landscaping. School board meeting highlights
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