Saratoga News | August 7, 2002

August 7, 2002 Saratoga, California Since 1955

Sacred Heart addition is nearly complete

By Kate Carter

There are no more hammers, no more screws, no more banging all through school.

Construction on a 5,000-square-foot addition to Sacred Heart School is wrapping up this month, and staff members at the Catholic school on Saratoga Avenue expected to begin to move into their updated building Aug. 2, according to the Msgr. Alexander Larkin, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

"We're getting close," he said.

The end of construction brings to a close most of the school improvements that had been planned years before. The two most significant changes are a new Montessori preschool room and a new entrance that opens directly onto the school office. Previously the school office had been in the center of the building and had prevented administrators from being visible or overseeing who entered and exited the school, Larkin said.

The old school office was transformed into a math classroom, he said, and the new entrance will create a stronger presence for the school on Saratoga's busy thoroughfare. Also, a utility pole located near the entrance will be removed now that the facility has undergrounded its utilities. The pole, however, still serves the Saratoga Library, which is temporarily renting space on the property, and won't be removed until the library relocates to its rebuilt building next spring.

The biggest change at the school is the new preschool room, which has its own entrance separate from the school's main entrance, so parents can drop their children off 20 feet from the door and watch them until they are escorted inside, Larkin said.

Sacred Heart opened its preschool about three years ago. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur had closed their Montessori school when they sold their Bohlman Road property. Its approximately 30 students had been located in a regular school classroom since then. Now the preschool has its own toddler-sized bathroom and built-in cubbyholes, as well as an observation room that allows parents to watch their children through a one-way window.

"Preschools are sort of the way schools are going," Larkin said. "Now we have a room that will really be their own."

The preschool will be getting its own playground outside its entrance in the coming months, he said.

The school also received other improvements, like a sprinkler system, an on-site water hydrant, a new hardwood floor in the gym and improved parking lot lighting. Over the next few months, the site will be landscaped, he said.

"There are a lot of things that don't show," Larkin said, especially as the school's drop-off and parking patterns remain unchanged. "Our buildings are really at that age where we really have to do some major maintenance."

The buildings are between 31 and 45 years old, he said, but they have all been seismically retrofitted through a program of the Diocese of San Jose. He expects that the new building, designed by Anderson Brule Architects and built by Blach Construction Company, will help to unify the appearance of all the buildings on the site.

Construction began in early January, not long before Larkin left the church on sabbatical, so he said he didn't experience any inconvenience from the construction himself, returning to the church only three weeks ago. However, he said that the school, which offers a single class in each of grades K-8, had to have been inconvenienced to some degree. The contractor, however, did all it could to be unobtrusive, he said.

"The construction company has done a lot of work with schools," he said. "They're very careful; they're familiar with all the legal requirements with being around children."

The project cost about $1.8 million, according to Larkin; funds came from private donations and a low-interest loan from the diocese.

"We're just amazed that we should have such a beautiful, beautiful place," said Judy Yarbrough, director of the Montessori school. "We are just very fortunate that we're in a place that gives such value to our youngest persons. We hope that we never have to move again."