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Board of Education OKs Hopwood renovations
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Posted on Jan 21 2020
The Board of Education unanimously approved during a board meeting last week renovations to the current Hopwood Middle School campus.
BOE chair Janice Tenorio, board members Marylou Ada, Phillip Mendiola-Long, Herman Atalig, and Andrew Orsini approved the renovation of the 19 classrooms at Hopwood that are still standing after Super Typhoon Yutu destroyed much of the campus in 2018. A total of 35 classrooms were destroyed in the Yutu onslaught.
If all goes according to plan with the renovation project, Hopwood students are expected to go back to their Chalan Piao campus in the next school year.
There was also a motion to approve the proposal to relocate Hopwood to As Perdido, the site intended for the construction of the new Hopwood Middle School campus, but the board decided against making a decision on that matter at the moment.
Orsini explained to the board that they would need to get input from parents first before deciding whether to relocate Hopwood or not.
“My understanding is that most of its students reside near that area, so I don’t know how it will work out as far as the logistics, including bus transportation, traffic, and other things, are concerned, if Hopwood will be relocated,” Orsini said.
Atalig said the BOE still has 16 months to provide the Federal Emergency Management Agency a plan for a new Hopwood campus so there is still time to discuss any relocation. FEMA would provide the Public School System $23 million for that project.
“So we need to identify the location and move forward. We have to agree whether to rebuild the school at its original site or at different location,” Atalig said.
