Friday, October 11, 2002 at 11:00 A.M.
SIMBY supporters joined the ceremonial step toward the building of the first Tustin school district high school in 40 years. Beckman High School is scheduled to open in the fall of 2004 and will serve Irvine and Tustin students. The school site is in Irvine, on Bryan Avenue between Jamboree Road and Culver Drive.
The featured speaker for the 11 a.m. ceremony was be Pat Beckman, daughter of inventor and philanthropist Arnold Beckman, for whom the school will be named. Architectural plans were displayed and Tustin's Pioneer Middle School Concert Band performed.
Tustin Unified School District superintendent Peter Gorman notes that the $54.5 million Beckman High will provide relief for overcrowding in the Tustin and Foothill high schools. The two schools have a combined enrollment of about 4,500, which is 1,000 more than they were designed to accommodate.
Beckman High also is needed to serve Irvine and Tustin students living in the neighborhood of West Irvine, Tustin Ranch, Northpark and Northpark Square, where students attend Myford and Ladera elementary schools, Pioneer Middle School and Tustin High School.
The new school will have state-of-the-art facilities, such as a performing arts theater, arts, humanities, math and science buildings, a swimming pool and a gymnasium, Gorman said.
"The science classrooms will be especially designed to handle computer-facilitated experiments that can be conducted in a chemistry lab," he said.
A community park, to be built alongside the Beckman campus, will serve residents of both Tustin and Irvine.
The campus was designed by Trittipo and Associates and will be constructed by Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. Trittipo and Associates has designed other schools for the Tustin district, including Peters Canyon and Tustin Ranch elementary schools. The schools have won awards for excellence in design from the American Institute of Architects.
|
PHOTOS OF THE GROUND BREAKING CEREMONY
|
Superintendent Dr. Peter Gorman opens the event.
|
The Ground Breaking Shovels are displayed
|
TUSD School Board President, Jonathan Abelove,
conducts the inauguration of Beckman High School
|
Pat Beckman, daughter of inventor and
philanthropist Arnold Beckman.
|
Pat Beckman accepts the honored school name
Arnold O. Beckman High School
|
Construction CEO, Douglas Barnhart, presents the
ceremony shovel to Jonathan Abelove
|
Preparation for the ground breaking
|
The Ceremonial ground breaking
|
| |
 |
|
