Ribbon cut on Glendale ‘dream’ campus

In the mid-1970s, Glendale Unified opened a school built to serve its students with severe developmental disabilities.

Knowledge at the time regarding such students resulted in the school — known today as College View School — featuring open classrooms, a now anachronistic view.

Michael Hawley began teaching the school in 1981, about five years after it opened.

PHOTOS: Ribbon cut on College View School’s “dream” campus

“All the classes were in the back, in a semicircle,” he said, adding that teachers attempted to close off their classrooms with cabinets.

When Glendale voters approved the passage of Glendale Unified’s $270-million Measure S bond in 2011, the school quickly became a priority for district officials, who agreed to tear it down and rebuild it entirely.

Seventeen months after construction began in March 2014, school officials cut the ribbon on the new two-story campus Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m going to start us off crying,” said Principal Jay Schwartz, to the parents, school officials, children and community members. She thanked the construction and design teams, fellow school officials and others who supported the school’s transformation.

When she became principal of the school in 2008, she also recalled parent Todd Morgan suggesting that students would benefit from a new building.

“His dream was so dynamic and so persistent … and his energy was so big in the universe … he planted the seed and it grew,” she said.

Morgan’s daughter, Madelyn Rose Morgan, passed away in 2008.

On Tuesday, as he walked through the new campus, he said he was “blown away.”

“I don’t consider myself having anything to do with it, but I’m really happy that I helped to start something … it needed to be done,” he said.

In all, the school board earmarked $26 million of Measure S funds for the new building. Alan Reising, director of facilities for Glendale Unified, noted it was completed at about $2 million under budget.

The campus features two stories of spacious classrooms, a 4-foot-deep therapy pool and therapy gym.

Among one of the greatest improvements, for Hawley, are the girls’ and boys’ restrooms in each of the classrooms, smart boards and voice amplification systems for teachers.

Joy Haguet, a physical therapist, is excited about working with the students in the new therapy gym, which features ample space for students to use mats and swings or play games and make crafts to work on fine motor skills.

A smaller room within the gym will also allow for students to sit with soft music and lighting, and desensitize, she said.

Parent Misty Harlan walked through the new school with her daughter, Novalee.

“This is phenomenal,” she said.

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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan