By LESTER CHANG
Fremont High School is poised for a $1 million facelift that calls for extensive landscaping, a central area for students and faculty and more efficient use of campus facilities.
The Fremont Union High School District school board conceptually approved the proposal a year ago for the school, which was built more than 70 years ago and is the oldest school in the district.
Work on the six-phase project is scheduled to begin next summer and could be completed in six or seven years, said Gene Longinetti, coordinator of property management and services in the district.
The board will have final say on the plans, which are all tentative, Longinetti said.
The project doesn't involve the construction of new buildings or the purchase of new technology.
But some of the chief aims of the renovation are to accommodate the 1,581 students, as well as future growth, and to instill in students and residents a sense of pride in the school, Longinetti said.
"We want to focus on excellence," he said. "We think there is a direct correlation between the environment students are in and their work [in school]."
The first phase calls for construction of a promenade in the northeast section of the campus, where three portable classrooms once stood.
The promenade, envisioned to be about 200 yards long and 40 yards wide, would have extensive landscaping, outdoor lighting and benches for students, Longinetti said.
The first phase, to be built first at a cost of up to $150,000, would be located near a gateway that is used by nearly 80 percent of the students, Longinetti.
The second phase calls for landscaping around the school's gym.
Phase three calls for more landscaping and modification of the administration building. Phase four calls for construction of a small theater to be connected to existing buildings that house the drama department and band room.
Phase five calls for landscaping around other buildings on the southwest side of the campus, while phase six calls for landscaping near the cafeteria and other areas.
Last spring, the board awarded a $27,500 development contract to Spencer Associates Architects and Planners, an architectural firm based in Mountain View.
The firm is also to do a master plan for the school that will look at current uses and future uses at the school, Longinetti said.
A master plan for high school is long overdue, he said.
The school served the educational needs of the community when it was built years ago, but the lack of planned development has hurt the school, he said.
Unlike Cupertino, Lynbrook, Homestead and Cupertino high schools, Fremont was not built with a master plan for the orderly use of buildings. Longinetti said.
"If an architect were to sit down and plan this site today, he would not have built it this way," he said. "Things are disjointed."
The buildings constructed in the 1920s were patterned after those used by missionaries to California. The older school buildings have detailed wooden frames, clay tiles and stucco walls.
By contrast, buildings constructed in the following decades have red-brick walls, large rectangular windows and metal supports that run from the ceiling to the ground outside classrooms.
The district hopes to "bridge" the different styles of some buildings by constructing arches between them, he said. "The way it is set up now, there is no connection from one building to the next," he said. "We plan to do something that will make these esthetically better, a major improvement."
The project also provides a way to improve the quality of education at the school, said Fremont Principal Pete Tuana. A central gathering place--generally to be located in the promenade and the new theater--would provide students with a sense of community and quicker access to classrooms anywhere in the school, he said.
Students currently gather in an area in the northwest corner of the school.
The project will provide benefits that will be felt for many years, Longinetti said.
"It will be a legacy," he said. "I think the district will look at this one day and say the money was well spent."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 4, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.