The construction for the 4,800-square-foot Multimedia Arts Program (MAP) building located behind woodshop and the weight room began early September and is making progress. The $2.2 million project’s most current milestone has been the completion of the electrical work.

“We had a few hiccups,” said media arts teacher Tony Palma. “In the process of the work, the equipment failed and there were some expenses in fixing that.”

This first problem arose when the construction workers re-routed the primary PG&E electrical line for the MAP building.

“[The construction workers] blew out an [electrical] breaker so we had to replace it, which was something we didn’t think was going to happen,” said assistant principal Joe Bosco. “It cost the district some money, but the dollar amount is still being negotiated.”

Another minor incident triggered the school’s fire alarm system Oct. 22 during first period. Some students were puzzled by the unexpected and unexplained fire drill.

“I was in chem class when the alarm went off,” said sophomore Megan Yen. “It was confusing because nobody really knew what was going on.”

Bosco confirmed the false alarm resulted from MAP building construction.

“[The construction workers] got too close to one of our sensors and actually bumped into one of them,” said Bosco.

Other than these relatively small issues, construction on the building has been going smoothly.

“Everything is going really well,” said Palma. “We’re out of the ground; that’s the important thing. Everything we do now can be done even when it’s raining.”

Bosco said, “These little issues may have set us back a few weeks, but we’re still pretty much on target for our completion day in late May [of 2010]. I think we’ve made it through the rough patch and I don’t have any concerns at the moment.”