Palm Springs High School completes building programs

Public Record, The, Feb 07, 1997 by Hercules, Neil

PALM SPRINGS -- With the prospect that a high school will be built by the turn of the century, in Desert Hot Springs and the condition of old classrooms deteriorating each passing year, the Palm Springs Unified School District has completed a $13 ,960,000 building program at Palm Springs High School.

The program was funded by proceeds of Measure P, for $70 million, passed by voters in November of 1992 for the benefit of the building plans of the PSUSD who celebrated the passage at an "open house" to show off the facilities on Saturday, February 1.

If you should drive along Ramon Road on the south side of the 35-acre school. campus, you will continue to see the old classrooms, but they will eventually be demolished and removed in the third phase.

The 21 remaining buildings, housing the classrooms and a shop building, will be replaced with a baseball diamond and basketball courts.

In the second phase about $12 million was expended for the construction of 54 new classrooms, a new administration building, science building, technical labs and shops. This phase totaled more than 100,000 square feet, replacing 85,000 square feet in the older buildings.

The Paul Summers gym, built in the 1970s, will continue to be used, replacing the old gym built back in the 1930s. New locker and shower rooms have been built adjoining the Summers gym.

While there are currently about 2,300 students enrolled in Palm Springs High, the original buildings were designed to handle a permanent school population of about 1,500, reported Bill Schmidt, director of facilities planning for the District.

Students and teachers have moved into the new buildings, and according to a secretary in one of the PSUSD offices, "We love it!"--referring to the new high school.