PaliHi Ponders Dramatic New Look

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

Palisades Charter High School is considering plans for the most significant makeover in its half-century history.

The proposed campus overhaul would move parking underground, open up more green space, modernize aging facilities and add classrooms for 800 additional students.

But the process could take nearly a decade, including up to five years of  dust and disruption­—and with a price tag that could dwarf the $6 million it cost to build the original school in 1961.

Last Tuesday, Oct. 18, the PaliHi Board of Trustees reviewed three alternative blueprints developed by gkkworks—an Irvine-based firm known for re-designing other schools such as Los Angeles Pierce College.

Each plan gave PaliHi a collegiate, park-like feel, with courtyards serving as gathering places and “outdoor classrooms” that blur the line between teaching space and the outdoors.

Sports facilities and the school’s library would also expand and modernize.

It would address PaliHi’s increasingly crowded classrooms—the meeting came as students and faculty raised concerns about bloated Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

Such classes are popular because they offer a challenging format and chance to earn college credit, but have become so crowded they pose logistical challenges.

Creating more room on campus comes with a price, however.

While gkkworks assured that PaliHi could receive partial funding for the project through education grants.

But there would be no avoiding the school’s transformation into a construction zone for up to five years. The work would be broken into phases focusing on different areas of campus while leaving others functional.

PaliHi principal Pamela Magee emphasized that gkk’s assessment represented only start of a process, but expanding is part of the school’s “longtime strategic planning.”

“We’re constantly hearing that we don’t have enough space,” she told the board.

Department reports corroborated that claim: College Center staff member Ruth Grubb reported that with more and more students taking AP exams (the school administered 1819 last May, a 5.7-percent increase from the year prior), finding test-taking facilities poses a problem.

For an AP US History exam last year, PaliHi had to rent 50 banquet-style tables at the last minute to accommodate all of the testing students. “It’s kind of exhausting,” Grubb said.

Tideline, PaliHi’s online student newspaper, reports that ballooning AP class sizes have forced some teachers to adapt their style. One AP English Language course now has 49 students, with some classes conducted from auditorium seats like a college lecture.

Community representative Ellen Pfahler warned that PaliHi’s uneven topography could make gkk’s idyllic campus layouts more expensive than anticipated once they take retaining walls and building on hillsides into account.

Vice Chair Leslie Woolley warned against being “pennywise and pound foolish” in regards to green building, adding that environmentally friendly construction practices cost the school more upfront but could save money and natural resources in the long-run.

Teacher Susan Ackerman worried about the commotion’s affect on class time.

With logistics and money questions yet to be determined, a facelift is still years away—but the future PaliHi could look very, very different.