Principal Jacqueline McEvoy is making progress in including more student input in Paly’s renovation plans after Friday’s lunch conference with members of Paly’s journalism publications.

The first projects, which will be funded by donor money, are renovations of the El Camino field and the baseball-softball field between the swimming pool and Churchill Avenue. According to McEvoy, construction is scheduled to begin in June, and the projects will continue throughout the summer.

Since artificial turf worked well and was efficiently used on the football field, the El Camino field, which will be used for soccer and lacrosse games, will also have turf, according to McEvoy.

“The turf provides use of the fields 365 days a year and cuts maintenance costs,” McEvoy said.

This will put less strain on the school’s utility bill and single field maintenance who, in the past, had to take care of three fields, according to McEvoy. Although McEvoy also wants the baseball-softball field to be turfed, there has been some controversy because the Eucalyptus trees bordering the fields will have to be removed, according to McEvoy. However, McEvoy feels that the trees should not be a big problem.

“The Eucalyptus trees are non-native and are even considered weeds in some people’s minds because they just take over wherever they are planted,” McEvoy said.

According to McEvoy, Paly received nearly $100 million to expand and construct new buildings from a $378 million bond measure that was passed on June 3. The rest of the bond went to other schools in the Palo Alto Unified School District.

The Facilities Committee consists of 15 members, including one student: sophomore Chirag Krishna. Because students know the flow of the campus best, McEvoy is trying to get more student input on the master plan.

While constructing the master plan, the committee took several issues into account, including the projected future population of students and the size and number of classrooms necessary to hold these students.

“We are due to grow to 2,200 [students] by 2017,” McEvoy said. “That’s about 500 more [than Paly’s current student population].”

According to McEvoy, Paly is currently at capacity and additional classrooms are needed.

“Every new building will be two stories,” McEvoy said, addressing the enrollment issue, “but when you renovate a two story-building, you need to put in an elevator [for the disabled].”

Several new buildings will replace existing buildings that need to be expanded.

“One of the goals is to get rid of portables,” McEvoy said. “The science rooms are [filled] to capacity, and [English teacher] Kaye Paugh’s room was originally not a classroom. I also know some buildings that have problems with infrastructure.”

The current plan is to replace the portables behind the math building with a two-story building with a total of 28 classrooms. The Math and History departments will most likely occupy this building because each department need 14 classrooms. The building is designed to resemble the current math building, where the interior office space and resource center are surrounded by classrooms on the edge of the building.

A career technology building will replace the 900 building that Auto and Robotics classes currently occupy.

“We used to have woodshop, metal shop,” McEvoy said. “We no longer have those classes, so we need to reconfigure that building.”

A new media building will house all the journalism programs and likely will include digital photography, video production, and yearbook classes.

McEvoy also hopes to build a new 600-seat theater and renovate the existing Haymarket Theater.

“For 2,200 students, that’s going to be about the size of a class,” McEvoy said.

The library and Academic Resource Center are also due to be renovated soon to incorporate more useable space for the expanding student body.

According to McEvoy, $14 million of the bond is designated for renovating the Tower Building, and $5-6 million is for Haymarket Theater. However, McEvoy says that these numbers may change after an initial evaluation of the buildings. There are also plans of building a walkway from a renovated Student Center to the second floor of the Tower Building.

This would be ideal because it eliminates the possibility for reconstructing an historical structure, an action that has its own limitations, according to McEvoy.

“Once you start renovating a building that’s that old,” McEvoy said, “then you can’t renovate it the way you want because it’s historical.”

Paly’s campus may also have to be adjusted with the proposed installation of a street light at Town and Country. Trader Joe’s hopes to align Town and Country’s driveway with Paly’s so people can drive directly across from one parking lot to the other.

While expanding the buildings on campus, the committee also took into account the open space on campus. McEvoy discovered that students and teachers alike enjoy using the open spaces for activities such as class discussions. The committee tried to preserve as much open space as possible, according to McEvoy. According to the master plans, the shapes of the Quad will change partially because of expansion and drainage issues.

McEvoy has hopes to implement solar energy into the school plans.

“Sustainability costs more in the short term,” McEvoy said, “but if your electric bill is tens of thousands of dollars per month, that money can be saved [with sustainability] for other programs.”

While McEvoy hopes to accomplish all of these plans, she acknowledges that the school will have to prioritize with its current budge. According to McEvoy, the current master plans costs around $200 million, exceeding the amount in the bond measure.

“We have $100 million we know we can spend,” McEvoy said. “Top priorities are classroom space. Community meeting space is [also] a priority. We don’t have a good place to bring the entire faculty together.”

For now, however, all plans are open to student input and subject to change.

“This isn’t finalized,” McEvoy said. “This is schematic.”

According to McEvoy, students have already suggested many new ideas such as electric car plug-ins and covered out-door areas.

In the past few weeks, McEvoy has been presenting the master plans in freshmen classes for student input. She will also visit senior classes for their comments in the next few weeks.