The removal of Palo Alto High School’s portable classrooms will begin during summer break, leaving many classes and clubs still without a proper plan to relocate their meeting spaces next year.
Approved by the Palo Alto High School Board Association on Nov. 4, the $313,950 plan includes the removal of the 12 portable classrooms as well as the construction of a nature-inspired area for students to use, citing the degrading conditions of the portables.
Eric Holm, the Palo Alto School District’s construction manager said the change will bring more places for students to socialize, such as benches and tables. Rocks and bushes will also be added to improve the aesthetics of the school.
Holm said the changes bring needed adjustments to the layout of the school, such as revising the fire lane areas that are obstructed and building a better drainage system. Holm said the portables were only a temporary solution to space needed for past construction projects. Now that there is no construction, the portables are being moved out.
“There’s going to be some shade structures and a bunch of vegetation and [that] really makes a nice landscaping feature … for everyone to congregate at lunchtime at the same time,” Holm said.
Holm said the start of the removal would be initiated in June and the majority would be done in July, with the construction of the landscaping beginning during the next school year.
For Paly Speech and Debate, a popular extracurricular activity that uses P-6, there are still tensions between the student body and the school’s administration on where the club will be moved to next school year.
Palo Alto Adult School classes, such as Yoga and Odaiko, would also be forced to relocate. Many classes do not have a plan for relocation after the removal of their spaces.
Sara Ziogas, who is in charge of computer support and the ESL class at Palo Alto Adult School, said the adult classes for the summer were mostly cancelled due to the renovation.
“I’m sure we’ll adapt [to] whatever happens, but it’s going to take some time to make the shift, to change from what we’ve been using for a while to whatever new arrangements can be made going forward,” Ziogas said.