With its high profile location on South Broadway, its hard not to notice the changes that the Santa Maria High School campus has undergone over the last few decades. This year it got one more with the addition of a two-story building with room for more classes.
School representatives dedicated the 26,000-square-foot building on Saturday, Aug. 29. The project offers new teaching and learning technology and eliminates some of the portable buildings by increasing the number of permanent classrooms.
Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Superintendent Mark Richardson, said the building reflects the historic nature of the campus on the outside with components of 21st century learning on the inside. He said the upgrades are important to student morale.
“I think it’s exciting because I’ve always been a believer that if you have professional facilities, if you have nice things for kids, they appreciate that. They work hard to keep it that way. They behave in a professional manner, and it just changes the entire attitude of the school,” Richardson said.
The building houses 14 classrooms, including two spaces for band, two spaces for choir and 10 regular classrooms. The structure accommodates 324 students and staff members. The building gives the school better curb appeal by eliminating some unsightly portable classrooms. Where it currently stands, there were once 21 portables, and at one point there were up to 109 portables all over campus, according to Jeff Hearn, former Santa Maria Joint Union High School superintendent, who was also a SMHS principal.
He said that when talks began about adding the new building, the alumni association had hoped that it would resemble a building that existed in the early 1970s that connected to Ethel Pope Auditorium. That building was demolished because it didn’t meet seismic standards. The association was told it wouldn’t be a similar building but would be something with which the association would be pleased.
“Hopefully, the alumni of this community, of which there are thousands, will be very pleased with its look,” Hearn said of the new building.
Construction began in late 2013, and in August students and staff were able to move in. Some of the modern educational features include large sliding and fixed whiteboards, three mounted big-screen monitors with the capacity to display the teacher’s tablet screen, furniture that can also be easily moved into different learning group arrangements, and other learning aids. According to Gary R. Wuitschick, the district’s director of support services, the architecture was designed to complement the older classroom units while incorporating energy-saving measures like partial solar power and LED lighting.
Sophomore Isaias Avendano said he is taking a French class in the new building and that he’s enjoyed the environment it presents.
“It’s an exciting thing to come to a new building, that our city and our administration and everyone has helped make, and I’m really grateful to them for giving this to us,” he said.
The project cost $11.5 million, with funding coming from the C2004 bond funds, with a potential of up to $7.6 million in state matching funds.
School Scene was compiled by Editor Shelly Cone. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Sep 3-10, 2015.