Julianne Micoleta
Editor in Chief
When ELL teacher Megan Conlon walked into her classroom late last month for the first time since June, there was only one thought on her mind: “Wow.”
“I was really impressed by the bright lights, the bright paint colors, the ceilings and the windows, and my immediate reaction was ‘Wow this feels like a college classroom,’” Conlon said. “I was really impressed.”
What Conlon was impressed with is known as the biggest renovation project that has happened in the history of Elk Grove and in the whole district.
As a part of an $18 million Federal Aviation Administration Sound Abatement grant, Pepper Construction and District 214 staff worked under hot conditions and a tight deadline this summer to replace 75 percent of the roof, install a new, more efficient heating and cooling system and install new windows to provide a better instructional environment for students and class.
The ambitious summer construction project also included new flooring, ceilings and paint for over eighty classrooms and instructional spaces. Additionally, the gymnasium now has new air conditioning and money from the district called Facility Improvement Project (FIP) funds were used to deliver a new main hallway/commons with additional meeting space, new walls, display cases and flooring in the major artery of the building.
“As far as the construction went, there weren’t a lot of hiccups,” Associate Principal of Operations Kyle Burritt said. “You’ll still see gentlemen around working, and you may see a guy with a hard hat or two finishing up windows, or if you walk down the main hallway you’ll see someone there putting on the pin lettering. It is real simple things like that. But one of the biggest issues we’re dealing with right now is the air conditioning.”
According to Burritt, while it may be 60 degrees and the air is on and running in one room, in the next room over the air is not on and it is hot and humid, is because the cooling and heating system is not fully controlled yet.
“It’s all electronically controlled and it runs through a computer system that we don’t have a control of quite yet,” Burritt said. “So it’s trying to balance all that and it has taken longer than anyone has expected.”
Along with Burritt, Conlon feels all new changes just take some time getting used to.
“I think that everyone is working together to get that under control, and I just think that with anything new it requires some time and some patience to get it straightened out,” Conlon said.
However, a change that students are not particularly fond of is the gray color scheme, citing that the new main hallway is lacking the school’s green and gold. Freshman Neeca Penaflor even likens it to a hospital.
“It doesn’t look inviting to a student, and it just doesn’t look very nice in my eyes,” Penaflor said.
To counter, Burritt said that it was done for a reason.
“Green and gold is a color scheme that doesn’t quite work for flooring, for ceilings,” Burritt said. “Our school colors are our school colors when you walk down the hallway today you see everyone wearing green and gold and that’s where the color comes from. You don’t want the color to come from the floor because then it’s obnoxious and then it’s too much.
“So, the gray color scheme was done on purpose to give it a modern, sleeker, updated feel.”
Junior Emanuel Morales is with Burritt and appreciates the modern look.
“They still have the Gren logo on [the glass], and it still looks nice without the green and gold,” Morales said. “If they painted the walls green or gold then it would have looked kind of silly and childish, but everything looks modernized and bigger. I like it.”
Another issue students seem to have is with the furniture in the foyer
“They should have kept the benches instead of the weird snake thing in the foyer,” senior Parya Majedi said. “It’s cool but it starts at the entrance of the café doors so everyone sits there and everyone runs into each other.”
However, all new changes come with its bout of opinions.
“I think that with any project there’s always criticism,” Burritt said. “Why did you pick this color, why did you pick that floor pattern like this and that’s normal because there’s over 2,300 people that walk through this building every day and not everybody has the same opinion about what color this and that and that’s fine but I do think that it looks and it feels differently. I think when I walk in a classroom it does feel different and when you walk in the foyer it does feel different.”
And for teachers like Conlon, different is something that she is impressed with.
“I think the main hallway outside the cafeteria is beautiful. I think that’s a really nice entry for everyone in the school. I think it’s a really nice welcoming environment,” Colon said. “All together I’m overly impressed. I didn’t expect such a big change. I knew we’d get the windows changed and there was soundproofing, and sure there were e-mails going out telling us probably exactly what was being done. But for me it was like I was wowed when I walked in and just whoa this affects all of us it’s not just windows, it’s not just the ceilings, it’s the entire school and it’s amazing.”