Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
A Great School: A Willow Glen High School student walks around the freshly-painted campus, 2001 Cottle Ave., during the first day of school Aug. 29. The San Jose Unified School District and the Willow Glen Middle and High School Foundation plan to improve the school even more during the next couple of months.
WG High School looking good
The plan is to keep it looking and doing even better this year
By Kate Carter
Teachers and students were greeted by freshly painted buildings and new grass on the first day back at Willow Glen High School Aug. 29. San Jose Unified School District and the Willow Glen Middle and High School Foundation have plans to continue improvements at the school on Cottle Avenue, both inside and out.
The high school has been undergoing seismic retrofitting, Americans with Disabilities Act upgrading and other building and system improvements for more than a year, as the adjacent middle school had the year before, and last year the site looked a bit shabby.
Much of the work at the high school is completed, said Chuck Corr, district director of facilities and construction, with only some minor improvements throughout the campus and work on two buildings remaining. That work should be completed next January, he said.
Willow Glen High School Principal Pat Day said the school received new exterior and interior paint, new flooring and roofing, new classroom and office furniture, a new heating, air conditioning and ventilation system, new carpet in the library, some new portable buildings and an elevator in one two-story building. The library was upgraded, as was the Little Theater that the middle- and high school share, he said. The schools' foundation contributed to some of the improvements to those facilities, he said, as well as after school hours at the library, which will begin again this year.
Improvements to the cafeteria and gymnasium are still underway, Day said, but should be complete in several weeks.
"It's really coming along," he said. "It's great to see some things coming together. We're just trying to get things greened up."
This fall, the school's music room, career center and drama and photo lab will be upgraded. Those two buildings are located in the front of the school along Cottle Avenue, though, which means that final landscaping in the front has to wait until next fall, Corr said. The landscaping will include a new irrigation system, new grass and some shrubbery, he said.
District officials decided that it would be better to do something to improve the appearance of the school now, so some grass was planted along the front as a "stopgap measure," Corr said.
He said the district doesn't have the funds to do landscaping anywhere but the front of the school. However, the district is considering sponsoring a general obligation bond to get money to improve outdoor space and sports fields at all the schools. The SJUSD Board of Education will make a decision on the idea in the next few months, and residents within the district will then vote on it.
He added that the district is also encouraging state legislators to pass a state school bond measure next year.
Day said the school year is getting off to a good start academically as well. Student test scores on the statewide standardized test, the SAT 9, are higher than last year, and there have been increases in the number of students taking advanced placement tests and the Standardized Achievement Test, he said.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
A New Face: Willow Glen High School, 2001 Cottle Ave., greeted students this school year with freshly painted walls and new grass. The Willow Glen Middle and High School Foundation plan to continue improvements at the site.
School foundation board members hope things keep improving and have big plans to help. Their goal is to raise $250,000 this year, more than five times what they raised last year, which was $44,000.
"We looked at not what's feasible, but what we wanted to do" to support the schools' visions for themselves, said foundation spokeswoman Catherine Edwards.
The money is earmarked for hiring two guidance counselors, one each for the middle and high schools, to help get children in sixth, seventh and eighth grades thinking about college, she said. Funds are also planned to establish mentoring and tutoring programs at the schools that will benefit youth who need lots of assistance, as well as those who just need help with daily homework, she said.
The group also plans to continue using about $40,000 to support the schools' robotics teams, media center and lighting for the Little Theater, which is how they used their funds last year, Edwards said. Foundation efforts will also be spent marketing the school to improve people's perceptions and recruit new students.
Day said this year's student body is about 1,250 youth. Last year it was about 1,400, he said.
Edwards said the foundation had planned to kick off its fundraising efforts at Founder's Day this year. When the event was cancelled, it chose Homecoming on Oct. 6 as the day to begin actively soliciting donations from school parents, alumni and neighbors, she said.
The group plans to reprise its phone-a-thon, which raised more than $12,000 last year, next February. It is also approaching corporations to partner with the school on projects, particularly on recruitment efforts and college and career fairs, as well as researching grant opportunities, she said. The foundation is aware that the current economic climate might limit how much they are able to raise but would rather keep goals high than restrict itself to what seems possible, she said.
The foundation board has 22 positions and about six are still open, Edwards said.
For more information about becoming involved with the foundation or to contribute, send an email to willowgf@aol.com.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
