CAPTION: Earlier today, contractors from Dodson House Moving along with NISD building and construction staff, move one of fourteen portables into place on the band marching pad, where most of the fine arts programs will be housed during the demolition of the A-building and construction of the new fine arts facility and auditorium, starting Spring Break. photo by Lizbeth Perez
Preparations to start the A-building demolition are happening sooner than expected.
Teachers in the A-building and elsewhere on campus are expected to pack up their classrooms to move into the portables that are being placed on the band pad before spring break.
This move came in sooner than expected, teachers originally thought that the move would be towards the end of the school year, closer to summer, when the process for demolition of the current building and construction on the new facility was slated to begin. To make the move easier and to avoid equipment, props, and instruments from being damaged, the NISD is bringing in additional staff movers to transport the boxes from the A-building to the portables over Spring break.
“We originally thought that by May we had to be out, so it did throw us out of the loop for a second,” theatre teacher Anne Bridges said.
A total of 14 portables are slowly being added on top of the band’s marching practice pad, where most Fine Arts classes currently in the A-building will be housed, along with a few other classes being displaced by moves surrounding the demolition. The move will likely affect some of the science and ESL teachers located in the B building. Electives such as journalism and art will be occupying rooms in the B-building because of their curricular needs such as sinks and computers. Those moves to the B-building are likely temporary and will change again at the end of the school year, with journalism, art, and potentially others being moved to rooms currently occupied by Excel Academy in the lower level of the F-building.
CAPTION: An early plan, subject to changes, on how the portables will be arranged on the current band marching pad, and where the classes being displaced will be temporarily housed. Included on the plans are notes made by a teacher trying to prepare for the move.
“I’m willing to do whatever the school needs me to do. Nobody likes moving, but they are knocking down the whole building so the [District] has to do whatever they have to do, ” physics teacher Eric De La Cruz said.
Many UIL competitions will occur at the same time that the classes are expected to pack and move into their new temporary room.
“It’s difficult because it is right in a lot of our organization’s UIL time, so we are having to do all this [moving] and then get ready for UIL,” Band Director Daniel Lugo said.
Other concerns arising include the security of the instruments and equipment from each program, how it will affect their rehearsal space and how the sound can be distorted in the temporary location. Teaching any form of music in the portables will be different for those programs because of the limited space and different type of environment that the portables provide.
“Acoustically, it’s going to be different, how the instruments will sound because of the different environment. It’s going to be something new,” Lugo said.
Despite the obstacles that it might bring to the fine arts classes, both teachers and students are looking forward to the new facility and the benefits that will bring to their programs in the long run, with a much-anticipated upgrade to the 52-year-old fine arts building and auditorium.
“They [students] have such good attitudes about it because they see that it benefits the department and they love this department,” Bridges said.