Students and teachers began classes in newly constructed buildings at Mountain View and Los Altos high schools on the first day of school earlier this month, although some final pieces of construction and landscaping are still underway.

Each campus got a new two-story classroom building, plus an adjacent one-story engineering building, funded by the $295 million Measure E bond that voters approved in 2018.

“Everyone is super impressed,” Los Altos High senior Riley Capuano said last week at a district board of trustees meeting, where she serves as a student representative. “It’s really pretty and it’s cool to finally get to see it.”

The classroom buildings are the first projects funded by Measure E to open. They were originally slated to be finished in the first quarter of 2021, but various hurdles pushed the timeline back. Those included delays getting state approvals, weather-related slowdowns and pandemic complications like social distancing requirements and lag time getting construction supplies.

Los Altos High is also getting an auxiliary gym and multipurpose space as part of the initial phase of construction, but that project is not expected to be completed until the end of September, Associate Superintendent Mike Mathiesen said in an interview.

Despite the extended timeline, these first projects are expected to come in under budget, Mathiesen said, although the final numbers won’t be known for a couple of months. The budget for the Los Altos High classrooms and gym is $53.5 million, while Mountain View’s classroom project budget is $42.7 million, which was increased from $38 million during the initial process of getting bids from contractors, Mathiesen said.

As those projects are wrapping up, the second phase of construction is underway. It includes constructing new administrative buildings on both campuses, an auxiliary gym at Mountain View High and a new campus behind the district office for Freestyle Academy, a two-year art and digital media program.

Mathiesen said he feels good about the progress that is being made, but acknowledged the inconveniences construction causes, including noise and limited space on campus.

“It’s a lot to manage, a lot to handle, and we’re aware of the impact to the students and staff on the campuses,” Mathiesen said. “At the same time, it’s balanced with excitement. .... The final outcome of this is well worth it, because these buildings are going to last for decades.”

Classroom buildings open

A variety of subjects will be housed in the new classroom buildings, which include specialized spaces for engineering, computer science and robotics. Los Altos also has a classroom specifically designed for its culinary program, complete with a walk-in refrigerator and cooking equipment. Mountain View High has rooms set aside for its Life Skills program, which serves special education students.

Capuano, who has two classes in the new buildings, said in an interview that she appreciates the completed space.

“The classes are really nice, they’re all really bright,” Capuano said.

Work on the classrooms are still being done. That includes fine-tuning the heating and cooling systems, whose default settings are aimed at maximizing energy efficiency, but which need to be adjusted to reflect the reality of keeping doors and windows open for ventilation during the pandemic, Mathiesen said.

The elevators on both campuses required approval for a state inspector, which didn’t come until last week at Los Altos. Mountain View is still awaiting the final sign off. Any classes with students or staff who have challenges climbing the stairs have been moved to the first floor, Mathiesen said.

“We made sure to make the appropriate adjustments to make sure students and staff had the access they needed,” Mathiesen said.

The auxiliary gym and multipurpose space at Los Altos High was meant to be finished in time for the school year, but Mathiesen said it was “deprioritized” to ensure the classrooms got completed, adding that he expects it to be finished by the end of next month.

Second phase

With the first phase of construction largely complete, the district is now moving onto the next set of projects. That includes new student services buildings on both campuses, which will house administrators, academic counselors, therapists and a student union, among other things. Mountain View’s will include a cafeteria and kitchen.

Work is underway to add a second synthetic turf field on each campus, which is slated to be finished in November. The student services buildings are set to be complete in time for the start of the 2023-24 school year, while Freestyle's new digs should be ready for students next fall.

“We’re still on target for those dates,” Mathiesen said. “The good news is we were able to get a good start early in the summer.”

The old administrative buildings have been torn down, Mathiesen said and construction crews are creating trenches for utility lines, as well as packing the ground to build the foundation.

Construction disruptions

All of the construction has meant extra noise for students and staff to contend with, as well as limited space on campus.

During her classes in the new building, Capuano said she can hear the nearby gym construction, while it can also be loud in classrooms closer to the quad because of the work on the student services building.

“For about half of my classes, I’m always hearing some kind of construction noise in the background,” Capuano said, adding that students have already learned to tune it out. “We’re all used to it. It’s not that bad.”

Mathiesen said that he knows that having “active construction sites” on campus has at times made things difficult.

“We don’t hide from those challenges and inconveniences, but acknowledge the amazing products that result at the end of it - and that’s what we keep our aim and our focus on,” Mathiesen said at the board meeting.

Because the new student services buildings are in the “heart of campus” at both schools, Mathiesen said things can be noisy and the quads are both partially fenced off. He added that students still have space to spread out.

The turf field work and gym construction at Los Altos High School limits the paths out of the new buildings, which can cause traffic jams.The Talon student newspaper published a photo showing a throng of students packing an exterior hallway as they exited the new buildings.

According to Capuano, the crowding has eased somewhat as students have gotten used to the current campus configuration. Mathiesen said he would speak with school administrators about ways to mitigate the congestion.