Breaking more than ground.Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard It was the beginning of the end in more ways than one, but it almost ended before it began. The largely ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Cal Young Middle School marked the start of the construction project and started the countdown to the demolition Demolition is the opposite of construction: the tearing-down of buildings and other structures. It contrasts with deconstruction, which is the taking down of a building while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use. of the current building. It's also the last of four new school buildings to be constructed under a $116 million bond measure approved in 2002. But it almost came to an unlucky halt when Cal Young Principal Sara Cramer and one of her teachers, taking their turn behind the controls of a big backhoe, accidentally dug up a water pipe. The fact that three pairs of students had just scooped three buckets of dirt without a hitch hitch to fasten by a knot, usually used to describe tying a horse to a post. didn't help. "My whole career flashed before my eyes," Cramer later said with a laugh. "We were worried we had just ended school for the day." It turns out the pipe was part of a long-abandoned irrigation irrigation, in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. system, so no harm was done. It will end up being just one more memory of a school that's seen children come and go - including a young Sara Cramer - for more than 50 years. The new school will rise on vacant land just behind the existing building, which will be demolished de·mol·ish tr.v. de·mol·ished, de·mol·ish·ing, de·mol·ish·es 1. To tear down completely; raze. 2. To do away with completely; put an end to. 3. at the end of the school year in 2006. The new building will open that fall with 109,600 square feet of spanking-new classrooms, two gyms and a modern library/media center. Outside, the building will be almost identical to its sister project, Madison Middle School Madison Middle School can refer to:
Students are making some 800 tiles that will be used in hallways and restrooms, around drinking fountains and in the lobby. And they're coming up with designs for floor tile tile, one of the ceramic products used in building, to which group brick and terra-cotta also belong. The term designates the finished baked clay—the material of a wide variety of units used in architecture and engineering, such as wall slabs or blocks, floor patterns they will submit to the architects and hope will be selected. Cramer noted that this year's sixth-graders will be the first to graduate from the new school. "The time for your beginning is here," she told the phalanx phalanx, ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of the enemy. of students who cheered the groundbreaking. Cramer said she has fond memories of the school from her days as a student there, when it was Cal Young Junior High School, but she's still looking forward to the new building. After half a century, it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a for an update, she said. The new school will have that, with wireless Internet throughout, classroom projection screens and an up-to-date media center. It will have 26 classrooms with lots of natural light and flexible space, and a cafeteria cafeteria: see restaurant. that will hold more than 700 people. All that seems to sit just fine with the school's residents-to-be, who, like youngsters everywhere, are much more interested in the future than the past. "I think our new school will be beyond awesome," sixth-grader Courtney Martin said. |
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