District to replace all of Building No. 300’s space

Angelique Flores

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- The Fountain Valley High School community let out a

huge sigh of relief, as well as a loud round of applause, after the

school board unanimously voted to replace all the space lost when it

razes Building No. 300 this summer.

“[The board] made the right decision because they chose for the kids

and their education,” said Bobbi Witten, a Fountain Valley High teacher

and department coordinator for the consumer and family studies program.

Structural engineers and state architects determined the building,

which sits on liquefaction, must be repaired or rebuilt, said Ed Baker,

the district’s director of facilities.

However, the building cannot be repaired because the cost to repair it

would be more than 50% of what it would be to replace the building. Under

state guidelines, state money -- in this case the $11.4 million earmarked

for the project -- cannot be used under those conditions.

After almost two months of study and discussion, the school’s task

force concurred the best way to replace all of the sinking building’s

55,000 square feet of space was to replace it with modular buildings.

The task force presented its proposal to the board Tuesday, however,

district staff added one modification to the recommendation.

Staff requested the board accept the task force’s recommendation, but

to use Building Nos. 100 and 200 to house programs currently in the No.

300 building.

District officials wanted to make use of those buildings as a means of

stretching the funds to other parts of campus, said Patricia Koch,

assistant superintendent of business services.

“The motivation isn’t to pare back the programs,” she said.

But the idea of squeezing programs into those buildings worried

teachers who already feel a pinch at the school, which is near capacity.

“It was a heightened concern to maintain the quality of programs,”

Principal Connie Mayhugh said. “Replacing all the space allows the

programs to continue at the excellent level that they are and allows for

changes and opportunities such as class-size reduction.”

With the Fountain Valley community at the edge of their seats, trustee

Matthew Harper requested that the board amend staff’s recommendation

deleting their modification in favor of the school.

“By reducing the square footage, we will impact the programs,” agreed

trustee Susan Henry.The motion to amend the recommendation passed 3 to 2,

with trustees Michael Simons and Bonnie Castrey dissenting.

“It’s not a board decision, it’s up to the people at the site,” said

trustee Sallie Dashiell of voting on how the school should use the space

on campus.

Given the time and financial constraints put on the district by the

state, the modular plan will allow all of the building’s space to be

replaced at a cost of about $7.2 million, leaving $900,000 for additional

costs. The rest of the $11.4-million grant will go toward the building’s

demolition, digital high school plans and other modernization projects.

“We’ll be celebrating,” Mayhugh said.