APTOS—Students at Aptos Junior High School walked into their newly renovated multipurpose room on Feb. 22, and couldn’t help but jump around on the new, shiny hardwood floors of the space that incorporates a gymnasium and auditorium.
“They were just super pumped,” said Aptos Junior High Principal Michael Mansfield, who says that, before the renovation, the space resembled a prison, with gray concrete floors and gray cinderblock walls.
“It looked like it did for the past five decades,” he said.
The $1.8 million project was funded through Measure L, the $150 million bond approved by voters in 2012 to fund construction and restoration projects throughout Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
Aptos Junior High has roughly $1 million left from its allocation, which has been slated for roof and HVAC improvements, said PVUSD Chief Business Officer Clint Rucker.
The completed renovation included a new wooden floor, new bathrooms in the locker rooms, new lockers and water filling stations.
The space also got new bleachers and ADA upgrades, Mansfield said.
Students didn’t see the space during the entirety of the renovation. After it was completed, they came back into a facility whose floor resembled the “Boston Celtics’” arena, Mansfield said.
The first activities, Mansfield said, were rousing games of badminton.
Next, he said he hopes to update the look of the old walls, a project for which he plans to ask the Aptos Sports Foundation for aid.
“That’s the next dream,” he said. “To get those walls painted.”
The school is also planning to dedicate the renovated space by naming it after a community member and plans to hold two community meetings to discuss the matter and take nominations.
The meetings will take place on March 29 and April 14, both at 5:30pm, in the school’s multipurpose room.
