Publication Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Out with the old, in with the new
Out with the old, in with the new
(December 17, 2003)
Gunn High School prepares to open new science, library buildings
by Rachel Metz
Science teachers at Gunn High School are looking forward to starting 2004 with clear, dry weather -- inside their classrooms.
Teachers will be moving into the school's new science building, and in doing so they'll say "hello" to shiny new equipment and "sayonara" to lab paraphernalia had to be draped with plastic tarps to protect it from rain seeping through cracks in the ceiling.
"That'll be nice, to not worry about covering things up on the weekend," science teacher Angela Merchant said.
After a little more than a year of construction, Gunn High School students and teachers will finally have access to new science buildings and a library. Where the old buildings were dark and crowded, the new buildings are spacious, which could enhance student learning and, in some cases, make it easier for instructors to teach.
The new buildings will open Jan. 5, Gunn Principal Scott Laurence said. On December 8 the school held a symbolic ribbon cutting for the buildings and is expected to begin moving into them during winter break.
"The buzz around campus is real positive," Laurence said.
The buildings were constructed with money from 1995's Building for Excellence school improvement bond. The bond program began optimistically but came under fire soon after starting when a plan to build a new middle school set the program back by almost a year. Completion of the science and library buildings is a good mark for the beleaguered program -- they were finished on time and didn't go over budget.
For Laurence, this outcome is good news -- and not just because he won a $20 bet with assistant principal Noreen Likins for making the construction deadline. Now, he said, the school has state-of-the-art equipment to match its state-of-the-art kids.
The Gunn buildings' completion means the school can move into the final stages of its construction program -- it still has to renovate its math-science buildings and gym locker rooms.
The school's old science buildings were dark, with chalkboards and over-sized green, octagonal lab stations. Though the new brown building looks the same as others on the outside, its classrooms are bright and spacious, with shiny white boards and lab stations that line the room's perimeters.
"We're not going to be tripping over desks to get to the lab (tables)," Gunn science teacher Angela Merchant said.
Besides making it easier for teachers and students to conduct experiments, the new rooms have technological innovations -- Ethernet jacks at lab stations, and built-in overhead projectors that can be used with computers or videos.
There's also the new staff prep room that runs the length of the building, which could increase teacher collaboration, assistant principal Daryk Tenorio said.
For Merchant, there's no comparison between the old and the new.
"I can't wait to go in there," she said.
The new building comes with more than $200,000 in new science equipment donated by the Palo Alto Foundation for Education, PAFE. It is projected PAFE will eventually have donated about $500,000 each to Paly and Gunn science programs.
New equipment includes a water-gushing emergency eyewash that pulls out of the wall, a new fumehood for venting noxious chemicals, a new cart of 20 laptop computers that students can use for lessons and many other science accoutrements.
Gunn sophomore Iliana Berkowitz said her current biology classroom is OK, but agreed if the new science facility is better it will be easier to work.
Students are excited about the new facilities, she said.
"They're like, 'Oh, the new buildings - look how well they're coming up!'" she said.
Not far away, Gunn librarian Kristi Bowers has a similar sense of confidence.
The interior of the old library is fairly dark, and except for a bank of computers not much has changed since Bowers began working there in the mid-1980s.
The new library, however, is bright, with soft, recessed lighting and lots of large windows. There is an enclosed outdoor patio and plenty of space for students to read and study. There will be comfortable chairs and some new furniture designed for libraries, Bowers said.
"It just looks like a library. ... It's kind of conducive to wanting to read or contemplate," she said.
The building is spacious and has several small group study rooms and two new attached classrooms that should house classes displaced by construction this coming spring. There is more space for books, Bowers said, and lots of places for students to sit and read or work.
One thing students might not be fond about the new library is Bowers' plan to strictly enforce rules like not allowing eating or playing computer games in the library.
"We're just going to, early on, establish there's a different culture in the new library," she said.
That probably won't deter them from stopping by, though, if what she's heard is any indication.
"A lot of kids are asking, 'When's it going to open?'" she said.
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