San Benito High School kicked off an ambitious expansion and modernization project on May 11 with a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the start of a P.E. building expansion on the south side of Mattson Gym.
“Today’s groundbreaking is the symbolic beginning of a journey that comes at the end of a long, arduous journey” to plan and fund a slate of projects that will ramp up in earnest during the spring and summer, said Ray Rodriguez, president of the San Benito High School District Board of Trustees. While the P.E. facility is being funded by general fund money, most of the other campus upgrades are being paid for by Measure G, a $42.5 million bond approved by 56 percent of county voters in November 2014.
“The San Benito High School facility has served the community well for generations,” Rodriguez added. “It is well past due for a restoration. The passage of Measure G was a clear message to our children that we care about them.”
With the Baler jazz band offering entertainment and dozens of locals in attendance — including teachers, students, parents, coaches and members of the Measure G Oversight Committee — architect Joe Vela pointed out that the new P.E. facility will feature more than 11,000 square feet of athletic facilities. In addition to a new wrestling room, weight rooms, team rooms and restrooms, the building will have high-efficiency LED lighting, heating and air conditioning and plenty of natural light . “We’re working hard to bring this facility online as fast as possible,” Vela said.
District Superintendent John Perales said that when he took over as head of the district more than a year ago, “I quickly realized there was a desperate need to move our facilities forward for our students and our staff so they wold be privileged to what everybody else is privileged to, which is the technology, the air conditioning … because I whole heartedly believe that impacts learning.”
While the ceremony was focused on the P.E. building expansion, Perales reminded the crowd that the district is celebrating upgrades to other classrooms on the south side of Nash Road, including new carpet, paint, lighting and technology, as well as the addition of air conditioning in classroom that have never had it.
As for ongoing discussions about the fate of Nash Road through campus, “a lot of our plans hinge on where the next few months take us,” Perales said. “Whether we can negotiate with our city and county in closing Nash Road or temporarily closing it because we hope to make that the center of campus.” He said the district also hopes to form a partnership with the city and county on a campus tennis court project to include lighting that would make the facility open to the public year-round, and not just when it is daylight.
Perales relayed the story of being “taken aback” by seeing the Baler football team — what he called “one of the most proud and successful football programs in California”–working out in a school parking lot, a scene “that really pushed me to think that we must do something and something quickly for our students. What a feather in our head coach’s cap that we have done so much with so little.” He also said that, despite his Gilroy roots, “we want to be better than them (in wrestling) and that is the mission. I know that’s a tall order, but with this facility I think that will take us to the next level.”
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