Awful Facilities Cripple Life Academy

Berkeley High School’s Life Academy program is currently confronting a variety of issues surrounding its facilities. In the first several weeks of school, the program faced a change in classroom space as well as an asbestos problem in the Washington portables. The program continues to operate with inadequate classroom materials and conditions, a situation the three Life Academy teachers have recently brought to the attention of the BHS administration.

“I think that the Life Academy teaching staff and the Berkeley High administration are in agreement that we’ve got to find better facilities for those students,” stated Pasquale Scuderi, BHS Principal. “There’s the issue of them being off campus, so distance from campus is an issue, and then there are also issues surrounding the conditions of those facilities.”
Last year, the program occupied portables 8, 9, and 10. This year, teachers were expecting three classrooms again. However, the Life Academy staff soon found out that this would not be the case.

"We found out the day before school that portable 11 had an asbestos problem," said teacher Amit Singh, who has taught in Life Academy in the Washington portables for four years. Asbestos is an insulation material, which can cause serious health problems if exposed, and no classes are able to occupy the space.

“In our first week, we were informed the district’s central maintenance that the classroom was not suitable for students to be in,” said Richard Ng, assistant to the principal.

The asbestos issue in portable 11 remains unresolved. "We're not getting straight answers," Singh said. He doubts that the portable will be available for use in the near future, "The principal doesn't even know what's going on in that room."
The teachers were also informed at the start of the school year that portable 9 would not be ready for use for the first few days of the semester. While classes are now being held in the portable, Singh stated that the condition of the room is "pretty bad." Class materials were also moved to different places throughout the portables without explanation, leading to some confusion.

Portable 10 is currently being used by an Academic Choice Government class; leaving the Life Academy program with portables 9 and 12. The decrease in number of classrooms is not causing class crowding, Singh said, but makes it impossible for the program's teachers to have their own classrooms, making the one–on–one teacher support that is part of Life Academy's mission more difficult.

The program Life Academy, which works to provide a smaller and more personalized learning environment for freshmen, has existed for five years at BHS. It was moved from the D–Building after its first year and has been in the Washington portables ever since. However, the program’s staff hopes that in the future, Life Academy will be able to move back onto the main campus.

The conditions of classroom materials and rooms are also a cause of concern for the Life Academy staff. The white board does not erase well, and Singh has made a request for a clock and a teacher’s desk for portable 12, neither of which the room has. The staff is unsure whether the materials requests will be honored, or when. There are similar circumstances in portable 9. In terms of the rooms themselves, Singh noted that “the carpets are stained and really old … [The students] definitely notice it.”

The Life Academy staff asserts that the situation must be improved for the sake of the program’s students. Ultimately, they hope to move the program back onto campus, a change that could be made this year.
“In the past, we had more materials and more resources … Essentially, we are all in agreement that we want to be on campus,” said Singh.

According to Principal Scuderi, “There are really two options in front of us at this point. One of them is to find [Life Academy] space on campus, which is difficult at this time in the year.”

The administration’s preference would be to move the program into the east and west galleries of the A–building. Although these spaces are not designed to be classrooms, they have been used as such in the past. However, one of the three Life Academy teachers would continue to not have a classroom of their own.

“The second option is to get Berkeley High maintenance folks together with central maintenance staff and do some pretty significant overhauls down in the portables,” said Scuderi. “However, that doesn’t solve the issue of proximity. That is the second and less preferable option, but one that we have to consider.”

The administration plans to choose between these two courses of action and hopes to work towards a decision early next week. In the interim, Life Academy students will continue to have their classes in the Washington portables.

Photos:

• Life Academy (Phoebe Wong)