Hollister
– Inside the portable classroom, the dance students at San
Benito High School perform their warm ups to Latin-infused music –
all the while carefully avoiding the two support beams and the hole
in the center of the floor.
Hollister – Inside the portable classroom, the dance students at San Benito High School perform their warm ups to Latin-infused music – all the while carefully avoiding the two support beams and the hole in the center of the floor.
The dance classroom portable is just one of 15 portable classrooms that the high school district must remove before September, due to expiring certification. The high school will be seeking approval from the Board of Trustees Wednesday to replace seven of these portables with new ones.
Most of the portables, which are more than 20 years old, are showing the many years of wear.
“It sucks because the floors are really bad, and with the two poles in the middle, when we’re trying to do technique and do practice turns, we run into the poles,” said 16-year-old Norma Serrano, who has taken dance classes in the portable for the last two years. “Plus, with the ceiling, the tiles will fall off on us sometime.”
The dance room is one of the few portables that is still being used. Another portable is being used as an office by the high school, and the remainder are used for storage or occasionally for testing.
Despite the fact that the portables are not currently being used, the classroom space of the seven replacement portables is needed by the school, said Jim Koenig, director of finance for SBHS.
“The school site was very keen to replace the classroom space. There are requirements for testing, and there are requirements for other classrooms,” he said.
In addition, Koenig said, some of the portables will be installed to allow for future growth at the high school.
Two new portables are needed immediately, one to accommodate the dance class and the other for office space, Koenig said. Five more are needed to ensure that the school has enough extra classroom space for expected growth in enrollment.
If the plans for the seven new portables are approved both by the board of trustees and by the state, then SBHS will seek a grant from the state to help pay for the new portables. Because it is considered a modernization project, the state will match 60 percent to every 40 percent paid by the district.
Koenig said the district estimates the new portables will cost about $1 million, which would mean a cost of $400,000 to the district.
Administrators are hoping to have the new portables installed before school starts in August.
“We’re trying to act very quickly on this,” Koenig said. “The dance room – that’s a real critical piece. If we don’t have it in by the end of August we’d have to find another space to accommodate it.”
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 336 or at aj**@fr***********.com.
