The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District board of education is moving forward with the construction of a futuristic 38-room classroom complex for Righetti High School. The board recently voted to select local company Vernon Edwards Constructors Inc. to build the nearly $22 million project.
The architectural drawings are under review by the Division of State Architects in Los Angeles. Construction on the project, which uses C-2004 bond funds, will start about two months after approval.
The district needed the project to increase permanent classroom capacity, eliminate portable classrooms, and advance new technology.
The facility will incorporate many learning tools from the district’s demonstration of the “Classroom of the Future,” which was on display at Righetti several months ago for feedback. It featured moveable whiteboard walls, mounted big-screen monitors with the capacity to display from the teacher’s tablet, desks and chairs on wheels that separate easily into different arrangements, and other learning aids.
“Most school buildings constructed in the 21st century have a 20th century or even 19th century classroom design,” Superintendent Mark Richardson said in a press release. “These classrooms do little to prepare students for the environment outside or after high school. We must educate our students in a setting that will emulate the experiences they will have in life.”
The design of the facility has 38 classrooms including four classrooms that can be combined for a large area.
The facility will be placed on the west side of campus, an area that currently has a parking lot and a maintenance and operations building. That structure and outbuildings will be relocated.
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2016.