MODERNIZATION: Poly anticipates an extension of parking, and reconstruction of the interior campus and rearrangement of facilities in the summer of 2020.
By Sophia Santoso, Staff Writer
Every year, Poly High School manages to accommodate a growing population of students. Today, Poly is comprised of 2,744 students, and for the size of its campus, the population of students has reached its maximum level. But with modernization projects underway for June of 2020, the prospect of a larger population of future students remains promising.
“We are such a small campus, and we are too big for the size of the campus we have now. We want to fix necessary problems now and give the opportunity for future generations of Poly teachers and students to do different things on campus. Moving some facilities across the street buys us some room here that we could use for different causes,” Vice Principal Mr. James Vaughan said. This project, labeled Measure O, will not only give Poly the capacity to harbor a greater number of students, but will also lay the groundwork for the future.
Composed of several phases, the first phase of Measure O involves the expansion of the parking and the construction of fencing around the school. Phase two constructs the interior of the school to make traveling from one class to another more convenient. The final phase of the project is the installation of new concrete seating areas throughout the entire campus, the construction of a primary entrance to the school facing Central Street, and moving the varsity baseball and softball fields across the street. “When Poly was built, it was facing Victoria. But overtime, as the population has grown and transportation has changed, Central is now our main artery where people drive. What we are eventually trying to do is get our school facing Central, and have our main office near the entrance so that people never actually have to enter our campus except students,” Vaughan stated. When Poly faces Central, parents can visit the main office and students can watch sporting events without setting foot on the interior of the campus.
Aside from convenience reasons and expanding the population capacity, Measure O was proposed to address safety concerns. “One of the biggest aspects were are trying to address is security. There are a couple of conditions within the interior project that will help with the security standpoint. The biggest one is hopefully that we can fix the fencing around the entire school,” states Vaughan. Measure O is a project that will ultimately facilitate the success of students by making travel more convenient, opening new facilities, and promoting a sense of security for all Poly families.