Glendale Unified approves $6.7 million in campus upgrades, including new roofs and solar panels
About $1.7 million in Measure S bond funds will go toward new roofs at Glendale and Hoover high schools, as officials plan to add solar panels on them.
Glendale school officials approved roughly $6.7 million in upgrades to school facilities Tuesday night to provide shade to schools without it, pay for new modesty-changing areas in locker rooms and cover the cost of two new roofs and a bridge.
About $1.7 million in Measure S bond funds will pay for new roofs at Glendale and Hoover high schools, and school officials are gearing up to install solar panels on them.
Tony Barrios, executive director of planning for Glendale Unified, said officials recommended replacing the roofs in order to match the expected lives of the solar panels, which should last at least 20 years, he said.
Construction on the roofs is slated for this spring.
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Barrios said he expects the solar panels will shield the roofs from the elements, prolonging their lives.
This summer, school officials plan to tap into $2 million in Measure S bond funds to install new shade structures at 10 schools.
Those campuses will be Dunsmore, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Glenoaks, La Crescenta, Lincoln, Mark Keppel and Valley View elementary schools as well as Cloud Pre-School and Daily High School.
Meanwhile, at Verdugo Woodlands Elementary, Barrios said officials are still deciding whether or not to demolish a bridge on that campus as crews build a new one. They may keep the old one for emergencies.
Crews will plan to spend about $1.5 million on the new ADA-compliant bridge with construction expected to begin next winter.
Also, at each of the district’s middle schools and high schools, crews will soon begin installing modesty-changing areas, which will give students changing into clothes for a physical education class more privacy.
“If they don’t feel comfortable changing in front of other students, they can go into these areas and change into and out of their P.E. clothes,” Barrios said. “In talking to staff, they have a lot of issues with students who are still shy and don’t feel comfortable doing that. It’s going to really help improve that atmosphere.”
The amount of space in each of the locker rooms in the middle and high schools will determine how many modesty-changing areas crews can be built, he said, adding that some unused shower stalls can easily be repurposed.
About $1.5 million in Measure S funds will go to pay for that project, in addition to replacing single-use restroom signs across the district to comply with Assembly Bill 1732.
Approved by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016, the law requires that single-user public restrooms, and those that belong to government agencies, become identified as “all-gender” facilities.
More than 320 restrooms across the school district will need to be modified, Barrios said.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
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