PRIDE: Poly’s principal, Michael Roe, plans to facilitate new changes on Poly’s campus.
By Timothy Chen, Staff Writer
Roe hopes to bring back Poly school spirit and knock King High School off the top by renovating certain architectural aspects of the campus. King attracts students through its excellent academic and athletic programs as well as its updated campus. By making Poly more visually appealing, Roe believes that Poly will be able to match King’s capabilities. “We won’t be talking about King anymore,” Roe assured.
With the cracked blacktops, calcium-covered bricks and gum-lined floors, the state of Poly’s campus pales in comparison to the new aquatics center. “The moment that thing [the aquatics center] was built, it made everything look much older,” Roe said. Dissatisfied with the current appearance of the campus, Roe plans to undertake a modernization similar in style to the aquatics center.
Some traditional aspects of Poly will remain, such as the brick walls. “I love the buildings as they exist, but we need to do some deep cleaning.” Roe said. In the short run, cleaning should suffice in improving the campus. Future modernization of the buildings is intended to preserve Poly’s traditional atmosphere. By doing so, Roe hopes to usher in a new Poly era and create a diverse Poly culture, attracting more students in the process.
Since the BMX activity was only seen by about one-third of the campus, Roe hopes for a larger quad space, which will be done by rearranging several of the buildings on campus. This will allow for an increase of lunchtime activities, which Roe hopes to do more of as well. However, in the face of costs, Roe hasn’t faltered. “The students and the community deserve nothing less,” Roe said. Poly’s remodeling and modernization is planned to come in one, three and five year phases. As of now, what can be done is the cleaning of the gum and bricks, which will match the color of most of the campus with that of the aquatics center.
With these infrastructural changes, Roe plans to give the future Poly a “college level feel.” He assures that these future changes will hands-down attract more newcomers and place Poly at the top. Armed with these plans, Roe strives for a campus that the community and students can take pride in.