Palo Alto High School’s community members have opposing views regarding the removal of the 12 portable classrooms scheduled for this summer.
The renovation aims to remove the portables and replace them with landscaping, according to Nov. 4 Board of Education meeting documents. In a $313,950 deal, the SVA Architect is contracted to remove portables at Paly and Gunn High schools, along with district office portables D, E, and F.
While some say the removals at Paly bring needed changes, for some the change is creating anxiety because the plan will result in the displacement of multiple programs, and the administration has not indicated where all of them will go next year.
Paly students and teachers, but also Palo Alto Adult School classes, use the portables for a variety of reasons stretching from yoga to Advancement Placement testing.
Jerry Berkson, an assistant principal at Paly, said the construction will progress starting from summer and will probably stretch longer into the new school year.
“That area [portable classrooms] is going to be fenced off for a while as they work on it,” Berkson said. “It’s gonna take a while.”
Principal Brent Kline said the renovation would be a benefit to the school.
“It’ll be a refreshing change to get those [portables] out of there and give some more spaces for students to hang out … and to make it more green for students,” Kline said.
One group that opposes the removal is the Paly Speech and Debate program, which uses portable classroom P-6. The renovation means an uncertain future for a space senior debater Motoko Iwata said serves as a vital part of the Speech and Debate community.
“It [portable classroom P-6] has been a place where people have been able to connect, to meet people from across sub-teams, and it’s become sort of a living room for a family, where it’s been a really connecting space,” Itawa said.
Kyle Hietala, who directs Paly’s Speech and Debate team, said the team’s loss of recreational space would be a major shift.
“They [students] kind of view this space as like a home on campus,” Hietala said. “I hope that others in our school district will appreciate that third space for students where they can feel a sense of belonging.”
Special education programs, ASB storage areas, and adult school programs will also be impacted by the removal of the portables.
Palo Alto Adult School’s Odaiko class, a place to play traditional Japanese percussion instruments, also will be affected by the removal project. Kensuke Sumii, the teacher of the taiko and odaiko class, said the class he teaches did not receive any notice of the removal project from the school. Sumii said the Odaiko class depends on being on the Paly campus.
“It’s hard to do [odaiko] in a residential area,” Sumii said.
Another concern of the Odaiko class is making sure there is a place to store the instruments.
“You can carry your tennis rackets, your violin, or your clarinet,” Sumii said. “These you can always bring with you. Taiko is different. You have to store it somewhere, otherwise you can’t practice it.”