Construction, renovation begins at Mira Costa
Members of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees and the Manhattan Beach City Council wear hard hats at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Mira Costa construction project. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian
After three years of planning and designing, Mira Costa High School held its groundbreaking ceremony for the construction project that will bring a new math and science building and modernization to existing buildings to the campus over the next few years. Construction projects like this usually require a concrete pumping service and many other contractors and suppliers.
At the ceremony, the Mira Costa cheer squad, band and song team performed before members of the district’s Board of Trustees, City Council and members of the Manhattan Beach community.
The project, funded by the $67 million school improvement bond, Measure BB, that voters approved in 2008, will bring a new, 58,000-square-foot math and science building in the place of the existing parking lot off Peck Avenue.
“What’s exciting about Measure BB is now we’ll have great facilities to go along with our great students and our great teachers,” said Mira Costa Principal Ben Dale, later adding, “I often say there’s a fine, blurry line between the school and the community, and we celebrate that.”
[scrollGallery id=293]The new building will include 13 science classrooms and labs, 16 math classrooms, common rooms, a demonstration science lab with enhanced facilities and storage space. The project also includes the addition of a performance theater and a quad area for students.
Renovations to existing buildings will include improving heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and building a new multi-purpose lecture hall for shared-campus use, according to the master plan.
Ida VanderPoorte, a member of the school board who was involved in the initial stages of the project’s execution, thanked the volunteers who helped promote Measure BB throughout the community. “Many volunteers worked hoping that their children might see the fruits of their labor, but knowing that even if their children didn’t benefit, the community would,” VanderPoorte said.
The construction has been organized into three phases, each focusing on different campus areas, in order to minimize the impact on students and costs.
School Board President Ellen Rosenberg also thanked volunteers who helped pass Measure BB. “Many of those same people don’t even have students who will step on this campus in its new form, but they did it because they believed in our community,” she said, adding that small efforts, as when teachers made the extra phone call or people posted flyers throughout the community, added to the success of the bond.
Officials anticipate that the project will be completed at the end of 2014. “What a great feeling it is to leave, when it’s all said and done, a legacy for the students for years to come,” said Michael Matthews, superintendent of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District.