SCHOOL GYM A BIG HIT WITH STUDENTS, STAFF KENNEDY HIGH WILL DEDICATE NEWEST FACILITY THIS MORNING.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

GRANADA HILLS - The old gym and the new gym at John F. Kennedy High School are located just yards apart and are roughly the same size.

But students, faculty and staffers say the new facility, to be dedicated today, is a dramatic improvement over the old one, which was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.

``It's perfect,'' Jonathan Mendez, 14, of San Fernando said Tuesday. ``It's like the Staples Center - it's really clean.''

Completed two months ago, the gym will be formally dedicated at 10 a.m. today by school board President Caprice Young, board member Julie Korenstein, Local District A Superintendent Deborah Leidner and architect Rebecca Binder, who designed the building.

The new gym is the last facility to be replaced at the Granada Hills campus, which was heavily damaged by the Northridge Quake. During the past eight years, the school has rebuilt its administrative offices, classrooms and theater.

However, a lengthy review by the Federal Emergency Management Agency slowed efforts to replace the old gym, which is located on unstable soil over Bull Creek Channel.

The new gym is built on the site of the school's tennis courts, which offers more stable, clay-based ground, and will include the construction of a new softball diamond once the old gym is razed.

The total project costs nearly $10 million and includes about $400,000 from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The new building features a large gym with maple floors, bleachers and baskets that move into place electronically, and small glass blocks that act as miniature skylights to augment the bright, modern lighting. There's also a smaller gym, two weight rooms, boys' and girls' locker rooms, a training room and a classroom that can be used for everything from fitness lectures to pre-game huddles.

``The kids respect the facility, the kids take care of it,'' said head football coach Bob Francola, pointing to all the neatly racked free weights and spotless weight room after a class of 50 boys left for their next class.

Despite the long wait, students and staffers at the school say they are pleased with the results. During the design phase, the school staff met with the architect and eliminated unnecessary storage space, closets and hallways to create a more efficient building that better meets the students' needs, Francola said.

``It's not somebody downtown deciding, 'Here's what Kennedy gets,''' he said.