With Ridgeview turning 30, the school is in need of some upgrades. The Kern High School District gives more funding to schools once they reach 30 years old in order to complete modernization. One of the major upgrades Ridgeview is currently getting is new AC units in each classroom. With the new upgrades, classes are forced to move to the portables located near the practice football field. This causes disruptions for both teachers and students.
The person overlooking all of these renovations is Assistant Principal, Drew Parker. The renovations are expected to last until the end of the school year, possibly going into the summer. When asked about renovations happening next year, Parker states, “Yes, because we are thirty years old and generally schools need more renovations. We have talked about what we will do next year but haven’t officially decided on what it will be.”
One teacher who had to move to the portables while their AC unit was being replaced was US History teacher Jenifer Cutherell. She moved to the portables a week after winter break for about two and a half weeks. When asked about how the renovations affected her lesson plan she stated, “It did limit the amount of paper copy I used, since we had no printer. It also made it a little bit more difficult to get students missing work that they had failed to do in a timely manner.”
With schools across Kern High School District getting renovations, it is difficult for there to not be renovations during the school year. Cutherell states, “I don’t think its avoidable, I think it would be nice to do it with no kids at schools, but I don’t think that it’s reasonable.”
One student who had to move to the portables three times was Junior Yahaira Mata. She found it pretty difficult adjusting to the portables and a new environment. “Since we were only in the portables for a little bit it was hard adjusting to the environment. The portables lacked colors and comfortablility that my classroom’s would have,” Mata states.
Another student who moved to the portables because of the renovations was Junior, Damian Hernandez. Hernandez states, “It was difficult learning in the portables due to the low quality of the projectors there. The screen was very blurry so it was difficult learning with old technology that was bad quality.” The two classes that were going through renovations that he was in were AP Literature and Honors Math Analysis, which are the hardest classes he is taking. He also stated that it was difficult adjusting to going to the portables, “ I found myself walking to our regular class and realizing that we were in the portables.”
