Prop. U Progress: Ceremonies Mark Major Work at Grossmont High School

Groundbreaking ceremonies for Grossmont High School’s $17.4 million Humanities Classroom Building were held Wednesday afternoon—with dignitaries, contractors and students posing with shovels and flipping dirt.

But watching nearby was Lance Edmunson of Lynx Excavating and Grading Inc. of El Cajon, who had been on the job for a week. And even he was late to the party. Work on the 3-acre project next to the new gym had begun in late November.

Edmunson explained how the old tennis courts had been bulldozed. The area was cleared of asphalt and debris, scraped of dirt and rocks 7 feet down and compacted to properly support a two‐story, 35,000-square-foot steel‐framed classroom building.

At completion, students will have 31 classrooms replacing outdated facilities and two dozen adjacent portable classrooms overlooking the softball field.

Don Ginn, a social studies teacher and Grossmont High School historian, told a crowd of 40 that he didn’t think an English classroom had been built here since 1936.

“We’re due,” he said. “Definitely.”

When work is done in March 2013, students also will have access to 10 new tennis courts and a Career Technical Education Facility for automotive technology—aka Auto Shop.

Funded by voter-approved Proposition U in November 2008 plus state money, the project is being built by a La Mesa general contractor—Riha Construction. In fact, said schools Superintendent Ralf Swenson, three-quarters of the work is assigned to East County businesses, “a nice thing to do in these tough economic times.”

Grossmont senior and ASB President Grace Crummett won’t be able to attend classes in the building, but she spoke of the opportunities for Foothillers of the future to “learn in the proper environment.”

And Grossmont school board president Rob Shield added his thanks to the taxpayers for approving the $417 million bond measure whose largest classroom building will rise at the east end of campus.