Barker High, Early Learning students join to design banner for new facility

It was chilly and windy on Jan. 27, when students, teachers and administrators from Central Valley School District gathered outside the old Yoke’s store on North Progress Road for the unveiling of a banner featuring funky white owls.

“The owls are a metaphor for the students who will soon be here,” said Jennifer Compau, Barker High School art teacher and the coordinator of the project. The owls are on a black background, and illustrate a student’s journey through the school system.

The empty grocery store is the future home of the Central Valley Early Learning Center and Barker High School. It was purchased last year by Central Valley School District for $2.325 million. Fifteen students from Barker High School and 36 Early Learning Center children worked on the banners. Compau said the older students approached the banners as a commercial project.

Zach Andersen, 17, was the project leader.

“We got the idea for the black and white design from the murals downtown,” Andersen said, explaining that they took a field trip to see the newly installed murals hiding the empty lot on the corner of Division Street and Third Avenue.

A large black-and-white mural of a young child on his side was especially inspirational, Andersen said.

“It was a fun project,” Andersen said. “I got to work with lots of people I didn’t know.”

Matthew Pretz, 18, said he modeled his owl after a statue in Compau’s art room.

“I liked it and I tried to draw it,” Pretz said.

The students produced four huge banners that now hang together on the front of the building.

Central Valley School District plans to move Barker High School and the Central Valley Learning Center into the building after it has been renovated.

Central Valley School District spokeswoman Melanie Rose said the two student groups will have separate entrances on opposite sides of the building, but will share a gymnasium space in the middle of the building.

“We are happy we can repurpose a building that’s already here,” Rose said. “It makes it cheaper for us.” A portion of the funding needed to renovate the building depends on the passage of the school construction bond that’s on the Feb. 10 ballot.

However, Rose said the Early Learning Center project can be completed even if the bond doesn’t pass, using state funds generated through the Early Childhood Education Assistance Program.

The Early Learning Center serves more than 380 preschool and special needs students and it provides child care for children between 6 months and 6 years old. Barker High School would bring 220 students, some with special needs.

“If the bond passes things could move quickly,” Rose said. “We may be able to move in by December of 2015.”