| May
2003
Ran:
San Diego Metropolitan - May 2003
New
high school on the way
TVUSD
has plans for a fourth one in the works
By: Louise
Cannon
TEMECULA
- Ground has already broken and some of it has even been paved,
but Temecula school officials gathered Thursday in hard hats
and with shovels in hand for the ceremonial groundbreaking
of the district's third high school.
Recently
named Great Oak High, the school is scheduled to open in August
2004 along Pechanga Parkway in the southern part of the Temecula
Valley Unified School District. Officials say about 1,200
freshman and sophomores will enroll in the school the first
year.
While
groundbreaking ceremonies for schools in Temecula are nothing
new, Thursday's event was a sigh of relief for school planners
who faced numerous challenges in getting construction of the
much-needed school under way.
Placing
the school within one mile of the Pechanga Resort and Casino
created an uproar amoung parents who said it would be dangerous
to have a school so close to a place where people drink alcohol
and gamble. Securing the $52 million to build the new school
hinged on voters passage of a $13 billion state school construction
bond last November.
In addition,
initial construction of the school, originally scheduled to
begin in the fall, was halted when county officials refused
to issue a grading permit, saying the construction plans did
not address drainage and road improvements. After several
meetings between county and school officials in February,
a grading permit was approved and construction workers arrived
on the scene in March.
"It's
taken a while to get here," said school board President
Stewart Morris, during his remarks at the ceremony. "This
was a long-delayed groundbreaking."
Morris
and other speakers, including Superintendent David Allmen
and Temecula Mayor Jeff Stone competed with the sound of cement
trucks and the beeping sound from other construction vehicles
in the background.
The area
where the school's gymnasium will be was already paved, with
steel beams erected along the perimeter.
The school
is scheduled for completion next year, and is being built
to prevent severe overcrowding at the district's two main
high schools: Temecula Valley High, which is home to about
3,000 students, and Chaparral High, 2,600.
Great
Oak High will accommodate 3,000 students, although about 1,200
will attend the first year. Blueprints for the school also
include space for a swimming pool, jointly funded by the district
and the city.
Thursday's
ceremony was not the first time this week that school officials,
some in suits and others in heels, trekked through dirt with
a new school in mind. On Tuesday officials toured through
French Valley to scout potential sites for the district's
fourth - and final - high school.
All four
sites are east of Winchester Road, north of Murrieta Hot Springs
Road and west of Lake Skinner - where plans for new housing
developments exist or are in the works. Specifically, the
areas include"
- 55
acres a quarter-mile east of Washington Street near where
it turns into Scott Road.
- 43
acres along Washington Street north of Thompson Road. An
adjacent 16.5-acre plot of land, which is privately owned,
could be added if the owner sells the land to the district.
- 55
acres at the intersection of Washington Street and Benton
Road.
- 50
acres at the intersection of Auld and Pourroy roads.
Board
member Barbara Tooker said on Thursday she and other trustees
do not have a preference yet and do not know when a decision
will be made.
"We
have to look carefully, ...Each site has their pros and cons,"
she said.
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