Arcadia Unified upgrades of $10 million welcome students

By SHEL SEGAL
Students at four Arcadia Unified schools are returning to updated classrooms and facilities this school year after the district performed nearly $10 million in campus upgrades over the summer break, officials recently announced.
Funded under the district’s $218 million Measure I Bond, the district recently wrapped up projects at Arcadia High School, Camino Grove Elementary, Hugo Reid Elementary and Highland Oaks Elementary schools.
While the finished off this set of projects, which are all included in the second phase of its bond program, construction crews this summer also kicked off its third round of bond projects at Foothills Middle and Hugo Reid primary schools.
Jim Leahy, director of Measure I construction projects for the district, said the work went as planned.
“It went very well,” Leahy said. “It was an exciting project to watch.”
Leahy said the outdoor performance facility at the high school will prove to be very beneficial to the community.
“It gives us another venue,” he said. “This gives us an outdoor meeting place for several hundred people.”
He added the buildings that were completed are now state of the art.
“Now our students have facilities that are commensurate for the type of work that they do,” he said.
Arcadia High School saw many improvements come to fruition this summer, including the modernization of more than 30 classrooms, labs and its main gym, which is slated to open this fall.
Its outdoor Rally Court, the largest student lunch and meeting area on campus, was also updated to include seating walls and planters, a grassy area, shade canopies, lighting and a 900 square-foot performance stage to accommodate lunchtime functions and activities.
Students at Camino Grove Elementary were greeted on their first day of school with freshly painted classrooms and new flooring, smartboards and fire safety upgrades. Their campus was also updated with the modernization of the site’s administration and student services building, landscape and hardscape improvements and a new air conditioning system in the school’s multipurpose room.
As a component of the District’s master plan to ensure student safety, perimeter fencing was also installed and gives the school the ability to lock down the campus. Every school receiving modernization Districtwide is being retrofitted with this feature.
Although some additional work is planned through December, workers this summer also completed the modernization of most of the classrooms at Hugo Reid Elementary as well as the school’s administration and student services building. Hugo Reid students and families will also notice renovations to its landscaping and paved areas.
Classroom and facility renovations at Highland Oaks Elementary School, which is part of the first phase of schools to receive updates, were completed this summer, with the final work being performed on the school’s multipurpose room air conditioning system.
Other Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects previously completed include construction of Arcadia High School’s new student services building, science building and Performing Arts Center as well as the remodel of its stadium. Arcadia Unified also renovated classrooms and facilities at First Avenue Middle, Holly Avenue Elementary, Baldwin Stocker Elementary and Dana Middle schools and the Dana Joint Use Gym.
As the District closes out its second phase of its Measure I bond program, it is also celebrating the start of Phase 3.
This summer, modernization projects began at Foothills Middle School, which will receive infrastructure upgrades and the remodel of its entire campus. Students this school year will be housed in an interim village of classrooms on the campus athletic fields as the work commences.
Students at Hugo Reid Primary School next year will also enjoy a new library and media center and newly renovated classrooms, thanks to the start of construction this summer.
Also as part of Phase 3, a project at Longley Way Elementary and construction of the new Arcadia Education Center is slated to begin this school year.
(Shel Segal can be reached at ssegal@beaconmedianews.com).

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