If my old high school was as beautiful as the newly remodeled Berkeley High, I probably wouldn't have skipped so many classes. This weekend, my husband and I took BART over to the East Day to attend Berkeley High School's Open House. Revonated with fundings of a couple of school bonds, the school was absolutely gorgeous. Listen to this -- the school has a brand new dance studio with all-around full length mirrors and hardwood floors. No, this room is not the gym partially used as a dance studio. It's a full-time dance studio!! To top things off, they also have a new indoor swimming pool!! No, not a freshmen prank! A real pool! It makes me sadly remember my senior days when I had to go to the public swimming pool on Sloat in the wee hours of the morning every single day. We had to share the pool with at least 3 other groups of students from other schools. Oh how I wished my high school really had a fourth-floor swimming pool. Berkeley high also had a College and Career Resource center 4x the size of our so-called center. College catalogs from all over the country, along with all the SAT, ACT prep books you can possibly find, all within reach in this center. Their cafeteria -- no, it shouldn't even be called a cafeteria.. .It's way beyond that. It doesn't have the typical ugly long, brown tables. They have nice wood round tables with matching wood chairs, creatively placed inside a rotunda and its surrounding corridors. Beautiful -- I wish I had pictures to show. My favorite part of the campus is the big grassy area in the courtyard. There are a lot of sitting benches and a big lawn area for students to lounge during breaks or for teachers to hold outdoor classes. So nice. Absolutely love it!
As we walked around the campus, tables were set up providing information on clubs and sports teams the school offered. As I strolled along the sports tables -- BHS actually had a good variety of sports teams available. Of course there were the typical ones -- basketball, football, volleyball, baseball, etc. But there were a few unique ones that caught my eye: Lacrosse, Crew, and Water Polo (I guess that's why they absolutely need their own indoor pool). Amazing. I didn't even know these sports existed in the high school competition arena.
Of course, the visit of Berkeley High made me realize how depressing my high school was, and still is. We didn't have any of those much needed facilities. Our high school produced some of the brightest and smartest kids in all of San Francisco--a #1 or #2 in the whole state of California - yet, it is so run-down and so student-unfriendly. A green lawn? haha! The last of anything green haas now been covered with concrete to house some temporary bungalows that are really not so temporary in reality. New gym? Think again. Despite having such a strong alumni association, I can't help by wonder where do all the dues and contributions go? Why can't we make the high school a little more inviting? Hmm....time to get involved.
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