It's taken a lot, but Liberty High is ready to strut its stuff
The spacious quad area of Liberty High School is surrounded by specialized "pathway" learning centers. (Menifee 24/7 photos) By Do...
By Doug Spoon, Editor
Driving up to the front of Liberty High School, one wonders how the newest high school serving Menifee could be ready to open to students in just two days.
From Leon Road, located in a rural area east of the city of Menifee border, visitors see the steel girders of a huge unfinished building; unfinished tennis courts; landscaping still in progress; with construction workers and trucks throughout the site.
But if you walk through the school entrance, you will see a U shape of attractive two-story buildings, designed for efficiency and creativity in learning, with spacious “collaboration spaces”, state-of-the-art labs and classrooms, all connected by wide bridges enclosed by glass to provide a bright and open feeling. These structures, which house learning areas for the school’s four educational “pathways”, surround a large open quad with multiple shaded seating areas and a sunken mini-quad where students can sit on artificial turf and eat lunch under shade trees.
Faced with an accelerated construction schedule to make up for time and materials lost during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers and school officials have worked from the inside out. Classroom buildings and common areas are ready to accept students when the school opens this week to freshmen and sophomores. Providing a safe and efficient environment for students took priority over completion of things like the school theater – the massive structure seen half-finished from the street.
Through it all, principal Erika Tejeda and her staff are working to create an atmosphere that will challenge as well as welcome students as they experience the signs of ongoing construction along with the beauty and functionality of the campus. These are students who, for the most part, haven’t been on a school campus in 18 months. And the school’s mascot, the bison, helps illustrate the attitude officials want their students to have.
“We’re the Herd,” said Tejeda. “We’re honorable, exemplary, respectful, and determined. A Bison never goes away from the storm. They go into the storm so they can weather it faster and get over it quicker. That’s who we are. That’s who our students are. We’re going to have diversity, we’re going to face challenges, but in six months, we’re going to have an amazing campus. They’re going to have finished a semester and have an opportunity like no other.”
That could be Liberty High School’s mission statement for the first year. All the backlogs of needed construction equipment, the quarantine of an entire construction crew during the pandemic, the 12-hour shifts put in by workers seven days a week to meet the deadline … those for the most part are in the past. There may still be signs of the storm, but the Bison carry on.
In the students’ first three days starting Wednesday, staff will provide orientation in what Tejeda calls “the Herd way.” They will remain with the same group they meet in first period for the entire first day. They will be given new Chromebooks, receive a nameplate, even have pictures taken in cap and gown – although the “big kids” on campus (the sophomores) won’t graduate until 2024.
“They’re going to write a letter to themselves, saying what they’re looking forward to,” Tejeda said. “We’ll have lots of activities over the three days. The second day they will go to all their classes and there will be activities in every block. They will learn how their new type of Chromebook works, how to set up Google Calendar, all those things.
“We’ll have kids with high levels of anxiety coming here. There will be a lot of stress. We want to show kids, ‘This is your school.’ This is their home. They spend more time here than they do at home sometimes.”
The plan for a warm, welcoming atmosphere will be facilitated by the architectural design. Each of the four separate academic wings will have its own administration office with counselors who specialize in that pathway: Business and Entrepreneurship; Public Service and Leadership; Sciences and Medical Technology; Engineering, Innovation, and Design. The hallways are painted with an accent color identifying its pathway.
Classrooms and labs have been designed with equipment and furniture to facilitate specialized learning in their pathway. Some lab rooms have roll-up doors that lead to outdoor work spaces, and tables are on coasters for easy movement inside and out, or in different configurations.
Students who take a ceramics elective class will work in a space with roll-up doors, a kiln room, and infrastructure to provide power outside, under a shade structure.
“The district spent lot of time and effort to select furniture that matches the design intent,” said Buddy Gessel, one of the architects with the BakerNowicki Design team. “They chose materials that are extremely durable. Surfaces that look like fabric are actually vinyl, for ease in cleaning.”
Hector Gonzalez, director of facilities for Perris Union High School District, led a reporter on a tour of the campus and pointed out the interconnectivity of the architectural design.
“You have access to all the classrooms in all pathways, all the way around, internally,” he said. “This hallway goes all the way around the loop to the Student Union.”
“Student Union” is what high school students are used to calling a cafeteria. But true to Liberty High School’s commitment to a college prep atmosphere, the Student Union includes more than an indoor space to stand in line to buy lunch. Upstairs is the Learning Commons (library), which includes not just books, but group study rooms that overlook the lobby area below. All buildings and hallways have lots of windows to let the natural light in and provide views of the scenic campus.
“We didn’t want it to feel like a cave,” Gessel said about the campus. “We opened it up with a lot of windows. The students don’t feel so cramped, and it allows for better supervision.”
Gessel said he believes that the special touches put into the school’s design will pay dividends in many ways.
“We find that the more care we put into the design and construction of the learning areas, the more students respect it,” he said. “When they see that the district’s put a lot of resources into this, they will help take care of it.”
Candace Reines, deputy superintendent of PUHSD, said the campus received positive reviews during the walk-around for students and parents to pick up books and other supplies and check out the campus.
“I was afraid about some of the comments we would get, like, ‘It isn’t even finished.’ But the comments were, ‘It’s a beautiful school.’ When you get inside, you see that,” Reines said.
The athletic facilities are located at the south end of campus on a lower level. The football stadium is complete and ready for the school’s first football game on Aug. 27 against Whittier Christian. The gym has two levels, with locker rooms and coaches’ offices downstairs and a spacious weight room upstairs, overlooking the football field.
“When visitors come from the parking lot [into the gym], they come into the main lobby [upstairs],” Gessel said. “Up here you have concessions and restrooms, so everybody doesn’t have to walk on the nice wood floor. The players come out from their locker rooms downstairs. They have access right onto the court. We did everything to take advantage of the grade change.”
Although there is work still to be done, administrators are grateful that the hard work of contractors has readied the academic areas in time for Wednesday. Some photos shown with this news article, taken on Friday, are already outdated because of work done over the weekend.
“Even before COVID, it was going to be a tight construction schedule,” Reines said. “They have adjusted and readjusted the construction schedule to ensure the classrooms were done, even though things like the theater are not done.”
“Considering the circumstances, to have this is amazing,” Gessel said. “To get through all the COVID stuff, all the material shortages, and still be able to open the school … The contractors have put tremendous effort into this that you might not ever see.”
The Bison football stadium, equipped with an artificial turf field and surrounded by an all-weather track, is ready for play.
Workers began assembling the just-delivered bleachers on the ground floor of the school's gym on Friday.
Lab rooms include tables and chairs on coasters and overhead electric supply.
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