Glendale school board approves science lab redesigns

Fourteen science labs are slated to be upgraded at Crescenta Valley High School as part of an expanded renovation project that recently received additional funding from the Glendale Unified school board.

School board members approved last week spending $1.7 million on top of $5 million they had already OKd to pay for construction of temporary classrooms that will house students during lab renovations and fund upgrades to two classrooms used by special education students.

The improvements are overdue, according to school board member Greg Krikorian, who said the labs were passed over for renovations years ago when the school district ran out of its previous Measure K bond funds.

“This is one area we never finished, and it’s exciting that we’re actually at this point now,” Krikorian said.

Glendale Unified hired Newport Beach-based tBP Architecture Inc. to design the lab renovations that will each accommodate 40 students.

The floors, ceilings, lighting and windows of the labs will be replaced, and the chemistry labs will receive new fume hoods.

Unlike the current labs on campus, the new tables and workstations in the rooms will be easy to move, said Gary Moon, director of design for tBP Architecture, Inc.

The labs will accommodate biology, chemistry and physics classes.

“We wanted to create labs that were flexible, so really, you can teach any science in any of the labs,” he said.

The Glendale school board approved the design of the labs last week, after setting aside the initial $5 million for the lab renovations in 2012.

The 14 temporary classrooms will cost $855,700.

The improvement to the special education classrooms near the science labs will cost $700,000, and will cover, in part, construction of new wheelchair-accessible restrooms.

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Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.

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