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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHARRIS BILINGUAL ELEM. SCHOOL EXPANSION - SITE PLAN ADVISORY REVIEW - 6-01 - MEDIA - (3)CHILD'S PLAY. Harris Bilingual Immersion Elementary Tyler Ryan, 11, left, grabs the flags of August Wagner, 11, as School sixth -graders playa game of Cat and Mouse Tuesday Delfino Walker, 11, makes it to the safe cone. The $5 million on the new artificial grass at the recently renovated school. project was funded by a November 2000 bond issue. ROOM To MOVE $5 million renovation project at Harris Bilingual is done By STACY NICK StacyNick@coloradoan.com On Tuesday, gym teacher Joshua Gomez took his sixth -grade gym class outside to play a game called Cat and Mouse, but this year, student Demar Sisneros, 11, said she isn't worried about falling down. "See — no grass stains," Sisneros said, pointing to her clean outfit. The students were playing on the school's new Astro- turf, just one part of Harris Bilingual Im- mersion Elementary School's $5 million renovation project. The $5 million re- modeling and construction project was funded through the $175 million bond election approved by voters in November 2000. Built in 1919, Harris, 510 E. Eliza- beth St., is one of Poudre School Dis- trict's oldest schools. Great care was taken to ensure that the historic fea- tures of the original building were reflected in the new 20,000-square- foot addition, said Principal Larry Slocum. The project included 10 new classrooms, a kitchen, comput- er lab, media center and 3,700- square-foot gym/cafeteria. With 10 new classrooms, the school was able to increase the number of students it could accept, Slocum said, however, not by as much as some might expect The school increased its optimum enrollment from 315 last V. RIU, ,GI u 1 ,aw, , , F vvnn.... �.... STRETCH! Sixth -graders at Harris Bilingual Elementary School par- ticipate in stretches Tuesday during gym class at the school. The renovation provided students with a new gym. InWImsUid? Fort Collins community mem- bers and alumni, as well as current Hams Bilingual Immersion Elemen- tary School students, parents and staff are invited to see the school's new addition and participate in a night of entertainment and unity from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The school is at 501 E. Elizabeth St. For more information, call 494-5200. year to 360 this year. "Really, the addition brought us up to speed for our current students," he said. "For the most part, the popula- tion was already here; it just needed to be built to accommodate them." The new gym, kitchen and eleva- tor helped to make the school com- pliant with the Amer- icans with Disabili- ties Act, Slocum said. And there are fea- tures students may not even know about. The school uses daylighting with "Low-e" windows, which use special glass to block ultravi- olet light and keep heat inside in the win- ter and out in the summer, said Greg McGaffn, PSD proj- ect manager. And the Astroturf infill is made from recycled tires, McGaffin added. Sitmett Builders Inc. began construc- tion in summer 2001 and finished in late August To speed up the process, school days were lengthened, and stu- dents attended class on district in- service days. But all the difficulties were worth it, said Judy Belarano, mother of a Harris student "Everyone had that big light at the end of the tun- nel to look forward to," said Bejarano, who has three sons at Harris — Do- minic,l0, Gabriel, 7 and Vincent, 5. What was most pleasing was that as progressive as the renovations were, the construction stayed true to the original architecture style, she said. But Amly Perez, IL isn't concerned with architecture; she's just excited about not having to walk to nearby Laurel Elementary School or the First United Methodist Church to have gym, music or art classes. "Now we have our own gym again," Perez said.