This article provided by Los Alamitos Unified School District
The Los Alamitos Unified School District has launched a series of major construction projects financed by the $97-million Measure G bond approved by voters last fall. The projects all are intended to create safe, up-to-date environments in which District students can excel in academics, athletics, activities and the arts.
Most of the work is taking place on the 52-year-old Los Alamitos High School campus. The District has nearly completed an overhaul of aging, overburdened data and electrical systems to support the current needs of technology-based curriculum and allow for future expansion and adaptation.
The familiar breezeway entrance to the high school has been demolished in Phase I of construction of a three-story classroom building that will provide students with state-of-the-art science lab facilities and transform the appearance of the Cerritos Avenue campus. The 83,000 square-foot structure — estimated to cost $52.4 million — is planned to open in the fall of 2022 and will include 14 science classrooms, 13 general education classrooms, and career and technical education centers for subjects such as engineering and robotics. In addition, the building will serve as the main entrance to the campus and house administrative, health and counseling offices, and career center, as well as a media center that will be designed to encourage a wide range of student collaboration activities.
Phase II of the classroom building construction will begin this Spring with demolition of the administration building and reconfiguration of the parking lot on the Cerritos Avenue side of the campus. Construction of the classroom building also will enable the high school to remove 26 deteriorating portable classrooms that are no longer adequate to serve student needs.
Construction also has begun on a $9.2-million Los Alamitos High Aquatics Center that will feature a competition pool complex for swimming, diving and water polo, as well as bleacher seating, MUSCO lighting, a 3M competition diving platform and a classroom building. The center is set to open by the start of school next year.
Finally, the district is finalizing plans for a second gym at the high school that, in combination with the existing building, will provide three courts for students to practice at school instead of having to be transported off-campus as they are now. The $20-million facility is tentatively scheduled to open for the 2023-24 school year.
Elsewhere in the district, smaller-scale Measure G projects also have been completed or are underway. The District has built new playgrounds at Rossmoor and Weaver elementary schools and soon will build another at McGaugh Elementary in Seal Beach. New restroom buildings also are slated for Los Alamitos and Hopkinson elementary schools.
A Citizens Bond Oversight Committee is responsible for monitoring District expenditures to make sure bond funds are only used for projects specified in the voter-approved measure.
“Our community gave us a strong vote of confidence last year by passing the bond,” said Los Alamitos Unified School Board President Diana Hill. “We take seriously our obligation to be good stewards of the funds entrusted to us, and the Measure G projects show that we are doing our utmost for our students.”
