GETTING BACK TO SCHOOL : New Campus, New Dreams : Education: Students at Irvine’s still-unfinished Northwood High have already formed bonds with each other and their school.
As students in tank tops streamed past legions of construction workers in hard hats to register for classes Wednesday at Irvine’s brand-new Northwood High School, the cheerleading squad was practicing drills on the school’s front plaza as if it had been together all summer.
In fact, it has. And so have the football team and a fledgling student government, which started meeting in June to develop a school constitution and procedures for electing class officers.
Northwood won’t open for classes until Sept. 9. Several buildings on the sprawling sand-colored campus are incomplete, and the athletic fields are still just a sea of dirt. But even as soon-to-be sophomores got their first glimpse at the campus Wednesday, they said the school already has a sense of community and a feel all its own.
Gary Elbaum, 15, a tailback and defensive back on the sophomore football team, started dyeing his hair blue to match the school colors when his team first began practicing in June. For Wednesday’s practice, he gave his head a bright new coat of color.
“I just wanted to get them excited about being here,” he said of his teammates, most of whom played together last year on the freshman team at Irvine High School.
Principal Tony Ferruzzo, who spent all of last year hiring teachers and developing a curriculum, was as excited as the students about a school that will be theirs to create.
“I’m looking to have an academic program that has high expectations and really drives kids, but an environment that kids will enjoy coming to every day,” he said.
From the dozen or so parents who staffed registration tables to the 20 volunteers on the Student Task Force who gave tours, Ferruzzo said there was no shortage of enthusiasm about the start of school this year.
“Would you believe I’ve already got a grad night [party planning] committee?” Ferruzzo marveled.
Impressive indeed, considering that Northwood will not have a graduation until June 2002. This year, the school will open with 36 teachers and slightly more than 700 students, all freshmen and sophomores. They will occupy about 40 classrooms.
As the class that is now beginning the 10th grade progresses, the school will add another grade level each year. That means the entering 10th graders--most of whom attended Irvine High last year--will be the most senior kids on campus from now until they graduate. Freshmen will register for classes today.
“It’s going to be a little strange to have just two grades this year. It will be like another Sierra Madre,” said Carlyn Carter, 15, referring to the local middle school that she and many of her friends attended.
Finishing up a student-led tour of the modern glass-and-metal-accented campus, Carlyn said she was most impressed by the technology her new school will offer. “They’re going to have televised broadcasts into our room instead of a [public address] system” for announcements, she said.
Her mother, Stephanie, was more impressed by the simple things. “I’ve never seen a clean high school bathroom in my life,” she said. “And the view from here is to die for! You can see almost to the beach.”
Nestled against the hills at the far north end of Irvine, Northwood is a modern two-story complex of 13 buildings that will eventually be able to house as many as 2,400 students.
The $58-million price tag included $15 million for the site and about $2.5 million in planning costs. The state kicked in $21 million for the project, of which $7.5 million went toward purchasing the land and the rest for construction plans, furniture and equipment.
At the center of campus is a sunny, sky-lit library and “Information Commons” that will have 36 computers on which students can use the Internet or work on assignments. A classroom next door with 36 more computers will be used for technology and graphic design classes.
Like many new schools, the classrooms at Northwood are built in groups, or “pods,” of four with a common computer room in the center. Ferruzzo said that students will attend history and English classes in the same pod, and their teachers will collaborate on lessons.
He said the design “really helps facilitate” the interdisciplinary approach he wants teachers to take.
Much at Northwood High School is yet unfinished. Trees clustered in the courtyard are little more than saplings. The cafeteria won’t be ready for another month or two, so food will be brought in from private eateries and sold out of vending carts. An extensive visual and performing arts complex will open around November. Three classroom buildings will not be used at all this school year.
But even with so much of the school incomplete, students said they felt extremely optimistic after seeing the campus.
“I just can’t wait to get into class and start the year,” said 15-year-old sophomore Summer Shafer, who was ecstatic to learn that she had been chosen for the yearbook staff.
Her mother, Judy, was equally enthusiastic. “They have designed this campus so beautifully with respect to nature,” she said. “In the morning, the light comes right in to the room where [Summer] will be taking her first class.”
While the classrooms at Northwood remained virtually unused on Wednesday, the state-of-the-art weight room was getting a rigorous workout with the football team.
“If you’re not sweating bullets, you’re not working hard enough,” athletic director Rick Curtis, the head football coach, warned his players as they finished a grueling circuit training session.
Gary Elbaum, the defensive back, was apparently working hard enough. As he wiped the sweat from his brow with a towel, the brilliant blue color from his hair rubbed off in his hands.
