With the construction of the I-Hub — a center with 10 classrooms for engineering, business, art and computer programming classes — now complete, a new construction project near the original D-building has commenced. The new project will be the Guidance Student Services building (GSS), which will house the College and Career Center, guidance counselors, administrators, student advocates and additional support staff, Assistant Principal Denae Nurnberg said.

Staff and administrators who will be relocated to the GSS will enjoy a more spacious building that will allow for greater and more efficient collaboration.

“[The building will] give us a lot more meeting space,” Nurnberg said, “which we don’t currently have in the main office. Our current office space is very truncated and kind of hard to navigate for folks who are new, and it doesn’t allow for cross collaboration between departments.” 

Furthermore, moving the office closer to the entrance of the school will allow the staff to enact safety measures that were not previously in place, Principal Greg Giglio said. Entrance gates are expected to be placed near the front of the school, so there is an increased amount of safety and security on campus.

Meanwhile, the previous administration office will be converted into a new space with redesigned classrooms, Giglio said.

“We are going to be making them more structurally safe … it is not that they are unsafe right now, but there is better technology for earthquake safety,” Giglio said. “So [the redesign will] look nicer, feel nicer and be more efficient.” 

With construction well under way, since the start of the summer, this has resulted in the closure of the staff parking lot to parents and students. 

“It’s an unsafe environment, to have so many parents and kids coming in,” Giglio said. “We had to close the access road. We don’t want kids riding bikes on it. Parents,  kids, bikes and cars don’t mix with big construction trucks.”

Consequently, this has led to increased traffic surrounding student drop off and pick up, particularly in the horseshoe, located on Homestead Road.  

“Usually on Mondays and Fridays, I have band and orchestra so I [have] to take my instruments to and from school, and I usually get dropped off at the L building. But now with the construction, it is completely closed off,” junior Kiara Ning said. “This is a bit of a hassle.”

To alleviate this problem, administration has adjusted the way they monitor drop off and pickup to help with traffic flow. Having more administrators near the drop off and pick up zones will help with the flow of traffic, Giglio said.

Following completion of the GSS, further plans for construction include a prospective remodel of the A, B, C and L buildings made possible by new funding from recently passed bonds, Giglio said.