The Hollister School District has been quite busy upgrading facilities and grounds during the summer break.
Director of Maintenance and Operations Aaron Buzzetta provided a rundown of key highlights for a variety of work happening at sites throughout the district during the break. The initiatives are all part of work to prepare campuses for the 2026-27 school year while making adjustments due to continually growing enrollment.
“Our intention is to make the maximum impact during a time that is easiest to access the campuses—when summer hits,” Buzzetta said.
He noted many of the improvements are in response to enrollment needs, but emphasized the district is beautifying sites while making them more safe and functional. He said the work started the day after school ended and was slated for completion July 24.
“I’m excited about what our students and staff will return to this coming year,” Buzzetta said.
For starters, he mentioned a complete interior lighting upgrade at Maze Middle School. The new interior LED lighting will save energy consumption and costs with a longer life expectancy for the equipment.
At Maze and Rancho San Justo Middle School, the district is replacing flooring in the gymnasiums. This includes the new floors with new striping for basketball and volleyball.
“That will be a huge improvement,” he said.
Also at Maze, the district is accommodating incoming Hollister Prep School students by adding fencing, gates and a lunch area.
Classrooms and offices throughout the district sites, meanwhile, will see flooring replaced. Those sites include Maze, Rancho, R.O. Hardin Elementary School, Cerra Vista Elementary School, Ladd Lane Elementary School, Calaveras Elementary School and the Hollister Dual Language Academy.
Buzzetta said more than 40 rooms in total will have flooring replaced. Additionally districtwide, work is underway on various hardscape improvements.
Those improvements include the Rancho Santana School TK/K play area concrete and TK/K lunch areas. He said the district also moved ahead on an addition to accommodate new TK classes at the school and created a lunch area for students to access nearby buildings.
This included new lunch tables with umbrellas, while the district plans to add shade structures to the play area there in the fall.
Other hardscape improvements have been to the Cerra Vista deescalation area, new concrete to the district’s medical therapy unit, asphalt replacement at Sunnyslope Elementary School and asphalt replacement at the district office.
As for carpentry work, improvements have included replacement of a trellis at Cerra Vista that provides shade due to safety needs.
Districtwide, Buzzetta took note of an alarm assessment and connectivity effort that involved bringing in a company to analyze needs.
“Basically, we’ve evaluated all of the districtwide alarm systems—both intrusion and fire,” he said. “We want to make sure everything is functioning properly.”
Also districtwide, crews are conducting a key assessment for implementation of a single-key system for all entrances along with air-duct cleaning, inspections and balancing at all campuses.
Buzzetta wanted to emphasize all of the hard work being done by maintenance and grounds crew staff during the summer.
“Surely, the maintenance staff is continuing to focus on all campus requests and needs,” Buzzetta said.
He said grounds crew staff members are focusing on an array of campus requests and needs—such as mowing, hedge trimming, pruning and weed removal—to prepare for the 2026-27 school year.
Superintendent Erika Sanchez lauded the work from staff over the break.
“Thank you to our facilities, maintenance and grounds teams whose hard work throughout the summer has created safe and welcoming school sites for our students and staff,” Sanchez said.
Going into next school year, some other upcoming work includes the Central Kitchen project on the district grounds with an anticipated start date of mid- to late August.
