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Neighbors pan plan for campus upgrades
District says better design is too costly
By Kate Carter
No one is satisfied with the new buildings San Jose Unified School District plans to construct at Willow Glen Elementary, but there seems that not much can be done about it.
Even district construction manager John Cimino, a Willow Glen resident, agreed that he would like to provide more for the school at the corner of Lincoln and Minnesota avenues. But he said that voters only approved a fraction of the money that would have been needed for top-quality improvements. Instead, he said, the district has done its best to maximize the $165 million voters did approve. Cimino also said that additional state money for which it qualified would be spread efficiently and fairly throughout the district's schools.
About 50 Willow Glen Elementary parents, teachers, staff and neighbors met with district and construction officials to discuss the plans during a second community meeting on Feb. 27. At issue were three new modular kindergarten classrooms and a new modular administration building that will replace the existing buildings in upgrades this summer. The improvements are part of modernization efforts the district is making in all its schools with local and state bond money.
Willow Glen Elementary's main classroom and the multipurpose building will get new flooring, roofing and paint. Other improvements include new electrical and heating and cooling systems.
Principal Anita Sunseri opened the meeting by acknowledging the concerns that parents and neighbors had raised at the first community meeting on Dec. 8.
She asked the roomful of attendees to appreciate changes officials had made in the plans to respond to their concerns. She also added that teachers and staff at the school were largely supportive of the improvements that they desperately need in their facilities.
The biggest change designers made was moving the three kindergarten buildings from their proposed original location along Iris Court, facing toward the administration building. Under the new plan, the buildings would face Iris Court with their backs against the administration building. The goal is to reduce noise from the air conditioning and heating units along the neighborhood street.
Parents said they think the new buildings and design may not be safe for their children or permit teachers to do their jobs. They said the ventilation systems in modular classrooms constructed at the school several years ago make it too noisy for teachers to teach or students to learn. They wanted to make sure the fans in the new buildings wouldn't be as loud.
Parents also said they didn't approve of the new classrooms being above ground level and that they would have to be entered by ramps. The two new water fountains they will receive aren't enough to replace all the school's broken fountains, either, they said.
Cimino said state law requires the fan to always operate and circulate the air, but added that new ducting and better maintenance should decrease the noise in both the new and existing buildings.
Project architect Bill Gould said a raised walkway along the front of the buildings, instead of ramps, was impossible due to the direction of water runoff along the ground. Cost constraints also prevent more than just two new water fountains, Cimino said.
Neighbors and other concerned Willow Glen residents expressed dismay at a picture of what the new modular administration building will look like. The building will be similar to a classroom at Washington Elementary School--it is a slight upgrade over the standard portable, officials said. The building would have a stucco exterior and a parapet at the roofline rather than basic wood siding and a flat roof.
"Nothing about this says Willow Glen," said Willow Glen resident Margaret Hardy, who received a round of applause from the increasingly frustrated audience. "This looks like a bunker. We're very proud of Willow Glen and we'd like the school to reflect that pride."
At the previous meeting, officials said the administration building could have a pitched roof. Cimino told The Resident that this other building was chosen instead because the district has used a similar one before and this looks more like the building it will replace.
The administration building that will be demolished to make way for the new modular seems to be one of the school's original buildings, project architect Bill Gould said. However, it also seems to have originally housed a store, and its layout and single bathroom do not meet the needs of the administrators and faculty, he said.
Gould said the building doesn't meet the district's guidelines for a school building. The costs of upgrading it would be more than just bringing in a building that already meets code, he said.
Neighbors also said the district should address kindergarten drop-off problems that make Iris Court congested and unsafe for children when school starts and ends.
The district and construction teams hope to complete construction during the 11 weeks of summer this year. Both teachers and neighbors are worried about that goal, though. Teachers say they are concerned they won't have time to adequately prepare their new classrooms for school and are skeptical that the buildings will even be done on time. Neighbors said the rush to complete the work quickly could create long summer hours of mess and noise early in the morning and on the weekends.
Willow Glen Neighborhood Association president J. Michael Gonzales, as well as several other WGNA board members, was also present at the meeting. He told The Resident that WGNA would likely write a letter to the district, asking it to put limits on the hours of construction and construction noise.
Throughout the meeting, Cimino stepped in to diffuse growing tensions and to tell meeting participants that the district is doing the best it can with the constraints it has.
At least one Iris Court resident spoke up in support of the district. Jeff Berg is an architect at a firm that also works with San Jose Unified on school construction projects. He told the gathering that he also thinks the district is doing all it can, given the pressures it's under.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
