With the opening of the second comprehensive high school in the
Morgan Hill School District, Sobrato High, the question many in the
district have is what will become of Live Oak High, poised to
celebrate its 100-year anniversary?
With the opening of the second comprehensive high school in the Morgan Hill School District, Sobrato High, the question many in the district have is what will become of Live Oak High, poised to celebrate its 100-year anniversary?
All who attended the School Board meeting Monday night saw a video production by a Live Oak junior, Michael Lucarelli-Cowles, and his brother, David, a Live Oak graduate, highlighting the more dramatic examples of disrepair and decay at the school.
The boys’ locker room was featured in the production, along with the school’s auditorium and band room. The audience also saw photos of several classrooms, obviously less appealing than the brand new Sobrato facilities.
Superintendent Carolyn McKennan pointed out Friday that the renovated classrooms are the model on which the Sobrato classrooms were based.
“All of the students, you want them all to have all of the best,” she said. “Not everything is the same (at the two high schools) but I would submit to you the things that go on inside the classroom at both schools are the same high quality.
“We know well the boys’ locker room is in very bad shape, and we are very interested in the auditorium. I would like to see something new and unique for that building. But hats off to Mr. Klipstine and his very talented students. I’m hoping they will have something nice to work in, that the buildings will come on line. We’ll have to be very sure everyone using the new facilities, children and parents and staff at both Sobrato and LIve Oak, takes care of them.”
Since the passage of the $72.5 million bond, which allocated $17 million for renovations at the school, in June 1999, roughly $24 million has been spent on the school, according to new Principal Nick Boden.
Boden met with Director of Construction and Modernization Al Solis on Thursday to get “an idea of the scope of the project, a sense of what projects have been completed, what projects are still in the original plan and what kind of time frame we’re looking at.”
So far, phase one of the renovation has been completed. That includes a new library, practice gym, football field, track and canopies over walkways, as well as the renovation of five of the classroom buildings: math, business, social studies and English, and the building that houses special ed, the school newspaper and some computer labs.
“Using the existing space, larger classrooms were created,” said English teacher Ken Repp. “One of the nicer features, besides the extra space, is windows. The original buildings were built, I believe, with an office cubicle-type model, to avoid distractions, but it is now believed that people do better when they have natural light coming into the workspace.”
But, Repp said, the campus is only half-way renovated.
“There is an ongoing concern about parts of the campus that haven’t been done.”
Part of the problem, Repps said, is maintenance.
“Throughout the district, not only at Live Oak, with the low level of funding from the state, there is a lack of resources for maintenance,” he said. “I know people are looking for creative solutions, and this sometimes calls for students and teachers to pitch in. But we are all busy, and I think the solution is a custodial staff adequate to meet the needs.”
Budget cuts over the past several years have drastically reduced the district’s custodial staff; Repp pointed out that those that remain are working very hard and doing an excellent job.
Britton Junior High teacher Brooke Bailey, who is a Live Oak parent and a frequent boardwatcher, said she feels the district has not lived up to its promise to voters who backed the bond in 1999.
“I worked for the bond,” she said. “I understood that there was going to be a new school that was promised to the voters as well as a renovated Live Oak. I am angry that Live Oak hasn’t been completely renovated … Scott Woodworth (also someone who keeps an eye on the district, as well as the husband of former School Board candidate Jasmine Woodworth) did some research at the district, and Live Oak was not on the five-year plan for even looking at Live Oak.”
Live Oak Head Football Coach and science teacher Glen Webb said there is still much to be done on campus.
“We’ve been trying to make sure there was equality since the beginning,” he said. “As disheartened as I was to hear about our current state of completion and the money left, I was not surprised … I don’t think there’s any denying that the room that’s in the worst shape is the boys’ locker room.
“It’s possibly a health hazard, it’s certainly unsightly and inefficient. And then there’s the industrial arts building … If I walk next door from my classroom to the other building, it’s like a different school.”
In a report to the board Monday night, Solis told trustees that the renovations are 67 percent complete.
On a positive note, Webb said the new practice gym has been talked about all the 20 years he’s been at the school, and he’s pleased it has been completed.
“And the library is a lot more hospitable’” he said. “The overall appearance of the campus is suffering from the real deep cuts to the maintenance staff, but the layout and the landscaping are good. It has a lot of pluses, big established trees and places where grass is nice.
“Overall I think the landscaping, the layout, the atmosphere of the campus is good. Students have many places to congregate with their buddies. The buildings don’t make a school. I would send my kids to Live Oak any day.”
