With the ongoing construction of the past several months, the long awaited math building and Denis R. Paul Aquatic Center are expected to be completed and ready for use by the beginning of the next school year.

The $10.7 million aquatic center will be open for use in December. The aquatic center features an energy-efficient, 12-lane pool which contains piping for solar heating, and locker rooms as well as fitness classrooms.

Constructed with white roofs for energy conservation, the $4 million math building next to the aquatic center will hold 20 classrooms and several offices completed by the fall of 2013. Each classroom will have a LCD projector with an amplified sound system for a more enhanced classroom environment. The upper floor rooms will also have the benefit of having skylights.

“We’re going from classrooms that were built in the 1990’s to classrooms that are modern and advanced. The new building is going to allow teachers to have access to state-of-the art technology in their classrooms. They’re going to be able to do things that we’ve never been able to do before,” Instructional Dean David Hong shared.

The construction project was first officially approved by the Walnut Valley Unified School District on Oct. 19, 2011 and its groundbreaking ceremony was held after school a few months later on Jan. 18, 2012.

Because the new two-story building with improved storage is designated specifically for math teachers, all math teachers will be able to work together in one building, rather than being scattered throughout the school in the C and J buildings. “For the first time since this school was built, all the math teachers will be in the same building. We’ve never been to have our math department all together, so for working with one another, coordinating the curriculum, it would be a lot more convenient for the math teachers with this new building,” Hong said.

Once the math department moves to the new building, the school plans to modernize other parts of the school campus such as extending the LINC and adding a multi-purpose room. Furthermore, other school departments will make use of the lower level classrooms. “With its future modernization projects, DBHS is going to see [that] the next 30 years [will be] as bright as the first 30 years…but…[provide] its teachers a new environment and new tools to teach with,” district Operations Manager Jeff Bloedorn said.