Photograph by Paul Myers
Student Andy Kolb laughs at a joke told by Saratoga High biology teacher Lisa Cochrum (right) as she explains how to use the new features in her classroom.
Science building gives SHS students, teachers a boost
By Rebecca Ray
Photographs by Paul Myers
Bob Kucer, an advanced placement biology and chemistry teacher, enjoys teaching in his new classroom at Saratoga High School. The counters are wider, the lab and lecture areas are separated and there's more space to move around while doing lab work, which is safer than conducting an experiment in a more crowded space, he says.
Kucer says he found the design of his old science classroom, which was about 1,000 square feet, limiting.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Microscopes line the wall of the central storage area in the new science building at Saratoga High School.
Since Kevin Skelly became principal of the high school in 1993, he has hired teachers who are more lab-oriented, Kucer says. The new science building, which opened Jan. 7 and has classrooms that are 1,600 square feet and larger, should better accommodate the teachers' instructional methods.
The new one-story building, which boasts 10 classrooms and a central storage area, stands near the back of the campus, where roughly 40 to 60 parking spaces used to be. The building, which took 15 months to build, also has faculty offices, areas where students can do individual research, a conference room and a walk-in closet used for storing chemicals.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Saratoga High student Jason Lai talks with a classmate in new computer science classroom.
To construct the building, the school used about $4.5 million of its Measure B bond money. Voters in the district passed the $79 million bond measure in 1998 to fund construction projects at both district schools.
The new classrooms have new features that the old classrooms did not: drying racks, cubbies, an emergency stop that shuts down all the gas stops in the room and showers to rinse off lab chemicals. The new classrooms also have more computer connections and safer eye washers.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Student William Wu helps carry supplies to physics teacher William Drennan's new classroom, while construction workers put the finishing touches on the new science building at Saratoga High School.
Social studies teachers will move into the old science building while construction goes on in their classrooms.
The school's new library is set to open in a few weeks.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
