Common Plans Central Valley District’S New High Schools Will Be Mirror Images Of Each Other

The two new Central Valley high schools will be big and brick, designed with an eye to future technology. But they’re also designed almost the way villages were a few centuries ago — around a friendly, all-purpose commons area.

With the two schools officially under construction, let’s take a tour. And since Central Valley High School and University High School will be built as mirror images, you can imagine we’re touring whichever is nearer and dearer to your heart.

Each school contains about 75 classroom spaces, two gyms, a 575-seat theater and specialized areas for technological subjects such as computer engineering, automotive engineering, computer-aided drafting and radio-TV production.

Each building is brick, with different accents reflecting the CV Bears’ blue and the U-Hi Titan red.

But most of all, each building is big. About 239,000 square feet is packed into two stories.

“It’s a big building with a lot of stories to tell,” said Steve McNutt of Northwest Architectural Co.

Let’s start at the main entrance. It’s accented with dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows. They’re intended to break up all that brick on the outside. And on the inside all that glass will “introduce light into the center of this compact building in a very dramatic and inviting way,” McNutt says.

Inside, we’ll walk right into the commons — a spacious, two-story gathering place that’s the heart of the school. It will be used for informal and formal activities, for lunch and for public meetings in the evenings.

“It’s clearly the hub, the magnet, the place everyone wants to be. It’s Grand Central Station. Pick your own metaphor,” McNutt says. He makes clear, by the way, that although he often is the spokesman for Northwest Architectural Co., his partner, Fred King, has designed the building.

The commons, with seating for 800 students, will have second-story balconies on all four sides, again accented with generous windows and skylights.

The kitchen opens onto the commons, as do counseling offices, rooms for the student officers to meet and the main staff room. Students and staff will mix easily here. The effect is to build the community feel that the district asked for in these schools.

Walls inside will vary between vinyl — that’s for ease in hanging student work — and open-face concrete block, for durability. It’s also low-cost, “bullet-proof and handsome,” McNutt says.

Classroom floors will be carpeted. Hallway and commons floors will be vinyl tile. Low maintenance and durability make that the district’s choice. A pattern of decorative accents, though, will liven up what could otherwise be a dull, institutional appearance, McNutt says.

What about the classrooms?

First of all, there are classrooms and project rooms. The project rooms will be used differently, depending on the teacher, the school and the department.

CV science teacher Bernie Hite says he’ll use his project room as a place where students can tabulate data from their lab work. Using computers, students will be able to compile formal presentations of what they’ve learned. Hite likes the idea of keeping the computers safely away from the chemicals, heat and other conditions that come with students in a lab.

All classrooms will be wired for Internet access. Using the $1 million gift from high-tech entrepreneur (and CV High grad) Bernard Daines, the district will be able to equip each classroom with at least three computers, a scanner, printer and electronic projector, as well as a TV and VCR.

The wiring is intended to offer as much flexibility for the future as possible. Indeed, some computers will use wireless air ports.

“It’s not inconceivable that a student would be sitting in the commons with his computer, and get right into his accounts using an air port,” says Mike Pearson, director of secondary education for the district.

Each school will have two classrooms with video-conferencing capability.

The media center, or library, will be on the second floor, right over the administrative offices. It will have 32 computers, enough for an entire class. Ten computers will be in the front of the media center, right in front of the librarian’s office for easy supervision. The center will include two conference rooms, wired for computers and equipped with TV and VCR. Those rooms will be ideal for debaters to practice, points out CV High librarian Roberta Rice.

“It’ll be great for them to have some place where they can talk loud and fast. We don’t have that right now,” Rice says. The media center will also have an instructional area, with tables where students can study or write. One area will contain rolling library stacks for badly needed textbook storage.

As you walk the halls, you’ll see that not every classroom has windows to the outside. But those in the interior of the building will have windows onto the corridor.

Let’s head back down the stairs, which are on either side of the media center, and over to the main gym. The bleachers, with one side for fans of the home team and one side for visitors will provide a big difference from today’s U-Hi, says teacher Don Ressa. The bleachers will seat 2,200 fans.

The design of the main “performance” gym and the field house will allow two games to go on at once, with full seating.

The locker rooms are designed so physical education students and athletes will have lockers in different areas, all of which can be supervised from offices in the locker rooms.

Athletic facilites include a larger wrestling room, weight room and gymnastics room.

Our tour must include the long-awaited theater. Its 575 seats will be comfortable — not plastic, says CV drama teacher Sue Goodrich. There is an orchestra pit, complete with elevator for handicapped access. Adequate backstage space for scenery, a black box — a small, black room with lighting used for teaching drama — also, a green room and scene shop round out the drama package.

You’ll notice that the gyms are on one side of the building, and the theater on the other side. That’s so that each set of facilities will have its own entrance at opposite ends of the building. Those entrances will reprise the theme of the main entrance.

“I think the patrons will be very much impressed by the gymnasium and the theater,” McNutt said.

This sidebar appeared with the story: At a glance Opening in 2002 Construction of the new Central Valley High School began in August, followed earlier this week by groundbreaking at the new University High School. Both schools will open in September 2002. Total cost for both facilities is $82 million. That includes demolition of the current CV High and all realated site work at both locations. Most of that, $78.1 million, was approved by voters in September 1998. The rest of the cost is due to reconfiguring the CV High design to keep students on campus during construction. The new U-Hi is being built at 32nd and Pines; the new CV is being built on the school’s present site at Eighth and Sullivan. Main architect for the buildings is Fred King of Northwest Architectural Co. Garco Construction is the general contractor for the CV High project. Lydig Construction is the general contractor for U-Hi.

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