By KATHERINE PETERSEN
Sunnyvale Middle School will be in the midst of a makeover when classes begin next fall. Renovation of the entire site will ensue after students are dismissed in June and will be completed by fall 1998.
Coordinating the project may be tricky, because much of the construction will be done while school is in session.
Funding for the $5.5 million project will come from the $34 million bond that voters passed in June.
Tom Sutkus, principal at Sunnyvale Middle School, enlisted the community's help in creating plans for the renovation through the PTA and the school site council.
Fairwood Elementary School may also require some construction if the school board approves implementating class-size reduction in second grade at its March 6 meeting.
Once construction is completed, each classroom at Sunnyvale Middle School will have telephones and Internet access.
"There isn't enough electricity at the site [now] to support such technology," said Ben Picard, deputy superintendent for the Sunnyvale Elementary School District.
The district replaced the school's leaking roof last summer, but the buildings haven't had much modernization since they were constructed in 1961, and the district hasn't had money to spend on updating the campus.
"The roof was a very bad problem, so we wanted to tackle that first. There's a list of improvements to be done that's a mile long," Picard said. Renovations will include redoing the library and learning resource center, and adding a computer instruction area that will hold about 30 units, Picard said.
The administrative offices will also be consolidated. As it stands now, attendance is on one side of the commons area, and other adminstrators' offices are on the other.
"It makes it difficult to provide good service to both students and parents, and the clerical staff can't effectively support one another with everything so spread out," Picard said.
The primary focus will be on fixing up classrooms. The district will replace 13 portables, which were already used when purchased 20 years ago.
The district will put in new carpets, sinks, counters and desks and paint ceilings and walls, Picard said.
"Everything there is very old," he said.
The district will also have to improve curbs, ramps, signage and bathrooms to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"The restrooms need to be redone, anyway. After that many years, they tend to smell no matter how much they've been cleaned. We'll have to replace the ceramic tile," Picard said.
In addition to renovations at Sunnyvale Middle School this summer, the district will install video and data cabling for telephones and computers in each classroom throughout the district.
"We're focusing on getting the infrastructure in place so we have somewhere to hook up equipment as we purchase it," Picard said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 26, 1997.
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