August 2003

Ran: Valley Chronicle - August 2003

Hemet High's renovation nears completion on time

By: Gail MacMillan

With the start of classes just nine days away, Hemet High is still more job site than school site as workers labor down to the wire to finish the most extensive modernization project in school district history.

Stacks of sheet rock and long bolts of carpeting fill the quad. Painters cover walls in bright gold and red. Plumbers install new bathroom fixtures over bright white tile and upstairs, thousands of feet of new duct work is being sealed off as soon as communication cables are pulled through.

The work is the completion of a $7.73 million modernization project to bring the 30-year-old high school into the 21st century. Work was funded by local Measure E bonds approved by taxpayers last year and by statewide ballot initiative Proposition 47 approved this spring.

Taxpayer blessing meant seeming chaos at the high school this summer. With just 72 days to complete the job, workers gutted and rebuilt the main building as they installed several thousand feet of duct work for air conditioning, new T-Bar in the ceiling, new flooring and new paint. Walls have been made fire safe, some corridors and half walls have been capped off to meet fire regulations. Science classrooms and some exterior walls sport additional doors and new doors were installed elsewhere.

And since much of the main campus building had to be gutted, workers now must replace all cabling and wiring to bring the building back into working order. Five sprinkler heights had to be adjusted and the school cafeteria was brought up to current code. New serving windows were cut into an outside wall to provide a second point of service during the lunch rush.

Through it all, workers have labored through 14-hour days and double shifts without air conditioning. Testing on the revamped air chiller started Wednesday.

"It's pretty warm all right," admits construction superintendent Bill Downing, with contractor Douglas E. Barnhart.

But air is a minor concern compared to other challenges faced this summer.

Only three weeks before demolition, original project superintendent Dave Dever was killed in a head-on collision en route to Hemet from his Orange County home. Dever had been planning the modernization project with district staff since its inception and the loss was devastating to staff both personally and professionally.

"It's been beyond unbelievable this summer," said Sandy Packham, director of facilities for Hemet Unified, who is overseeing modernization projects at several campuses this summer. Besides the high school, she is in charge of building two new elementary campuses and several smaller modernization projects at different schools. "We knew it would be down to the wire."

Administration staff was due to return to newly revamped offices Friday. Teachers will return Monday. Packham is bringing in a crew of professional cleaners to remove the fine concrete silt and to spiffy up classrooms to make them ready for furniture. In the quad, hundreds of classroom door windows are sprayed red in preparation for installation.

Modernization of a 30-year-old campus is filled with unexpected challenges. The original elevator shaft is eight inches smaller than called for in original plans. The shaft was concreted off after the school was built before an elevator was installed. A new elevator is now delayed, but should be installed by October.

New windows replace those that suffered gaps when the building settled after its construction in the early 1970s. Rearrangements over the decades led to corridors that incorrectly appeared to lead outdoors - which could be tragic in case of fire. Now, Packham says, "if it looks like a corridor, it really is."

The entire career center had to be rebuilt since none of the original construction net current code.

To meet fire codes, the once-open library is now closed off from the upper corridors.

Science classrooms now have two exits since rooms exceed 1,000 square feet. Staff restrooms were reconfigured to provide more room and handicap accessibility. Student restrooms have no tile and fixtures.

"It's the largest restoration we've ever done," Packham said. "It's amazing what has been done this summer."

Demolition started at noon on Friday, June 13. Packham said teams of workers and equipment were waiting for the final student to leave campus before they moved in and started knocking down walls.

Proposed high school may find home in Hemet

Hemet's newest high school may be in Hemet after all.

Trustees will vote Tuesday whether to approve examination of a new property within Hemet city limits for the city's third high school scheduled to be build within the next few years.

Superintendent Phil Pendley said staff is considering a 112-acre site near the confluence of Fruitvale, Cawston and Commonwealth. Pendley brought the site before Hemet City Council last week.

The site is nearly twice as large as a previously considered site near Sanderson and Esplanade avenues in San Jacinto. Board members expressed concern about build a Hemet Unified high school outside city limits. Pendley cautioned that examining the new property does not mean that staff will be closing the door on the San Jacinto property, which is within Hemet Unified's boundaries.

The new Hemet site is further west than previously considered sites and once served as a dairy. While there would be issues with site clean up, "it's nothing insurmountable that we can see now," Pendley said.

The site will be discussed at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hemet Unified's board meeting at the district office, 2350 West Latham Avenue in Hemet.

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