Carnegie Vanguard ‘investors' plan its move

Only current freshmen have a shot at attending the new structure, but many attendees at a brainstorming session with architects Feb. 6 were former students, their parents and upperclassmen.

“We have so many people who are so invested in our program that they want to see it continue to flourish,” said principal Ramon Moss.

Adding to the excitement is the shared belief that the school's current facility — to which it moved in 2002, having previously been housed within another high school — is inadequate.

The aging former elementary, at Highway 288 and Airport Boulevard, is at capacity. Some teachers lug their materials to six different rooms each day. The teachers' lounge may become a classroom next year. Staff unplug items before plugging others in, lest the room go dark. Restrooms are in temporary buildings outside, as are the science labs.

Still, the facility has helped bond the school together.

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Everyone smiles when mentioning the “cafelockegymnatorium,” the space that serves as a theater, gymnasium, locker bay and cafeteria.

A top priority

Ironically, the top priority for the building committee is maintaining a feature of the current building: a central courtyard. The gathering space has helped form the school's intimate culture.

“That's going to be one of our main charges is to try to do whatever we can to have continuity from this culture and climate here,” said assistant principal Juan Garner. “It's probably our strongest attribute.”

Parent Peggy Sue Gay agreed.

“It's a school of no cliques,” she said. “They may be very smart, yet there's no elitism or intellectual snobbery. You come in as a ninth grader and the 12th graders accept you.”

Other priorities include LEED (environmentally friendly) certification, adding more space for theater and fine arts — possibly in the Settegast Estate Building, an empty 1938 modernist structure on West Gray — and preserving green space.

That last item will be the most challenging on a plot that must fit an 80,000-square-foot school and 320 parking spaces, per city code.

Gay and fellow parent Karin Knapp said they don't want to sound ungrateful for the budget provided, but said money to buy adjacent land or build a parking garage is needed.

“We're going to put a lot of effort into having a LEED-certified building only to pave over the grass with parking,” Knapp said. “If we're building a school of the future, I don't think we should be encouraging kids to come to school alone in a car.”

More than 1,000 apply

Another challenge will be the flood of interest spurred by the central new location. Already, the school is approaching 1,000 applications for the roughly 150 slots in next fall's freshman class, Moss said.

“We do want to be able to accommodate the small percentage of gifted and talented students throughout the district,” Moss said, “but we also want to protect that small-school culture and climate we currently have.”

Gay agreed a balance is necessary.

“You can't put Carnegie on steroids,” Gay said. “What is special and important about it is its size. Six hundred (students) may even be a reach.”