As busy as it is around here—we call it the 90 days of May—we wanted to grab a moment before the start of exams and before graduation to invite interested students to help us outline the rough footprint of the Grange & Studios building. While this is a typical step in any construction project, we've never had students take the first pass. At lunch and during the academic period immediately following, one of our architects, Adam Waltag of WRNS Studio, led us in this exercise. Also at the helm were Trustee Rick Theis—who showed up carrying a box full of flags, spray paint and tape measures—STEM Teachers Sam Horton and Dan Karbousky, Directer of Academic Services Oona McKnight and Director of Technology Sean Freese. 

 

Adam told me later that our students immediately "got it." What the students "got" was the process of triangulating the corner points of the buildings (geometry in action) by measuring from major landmarks. The corners were then staked and flags were used to fill in the outlines of the building. Pink flags represent the lower level and green flags, the upper level. I encourage you all to stop by and get a feeling for where how this new building is going to fit into our campus. Students took great delight in applying the spray paint to outline the gender-neutral bathroom. Founding Trustee Kitty Angell—who served a four year term as Board Chair in our early years and who has shuttled us through one campus build-out already—was there cheering us on. Kitty is still on the board and serves a critical role as a member of the construction management team charged with overseeing this project.

 

I was particularly delighted that a few of our seniors joined in and were able in this way to leave their mark on the future of Sonoma Academy. Of course you can't be an educator without being optimistic and just as I am optimistic about the future of all of our students, I am optimistic about finishing the campaign in order to start construction this summer.

Photo credit: Steven Gu '18