By Kathleen Acuff

The library is Principal Bill Pierce’s favorite room on the new Alta Vista campus. He plans to apply for a grant to fill the shelves.

After 38 years of wandering, Alta Vista is coming home. Faculty, staff and students will soon make the school’s fifth move - into a brand-new school designed just for them next to their current campus on Bryant Avenue in Mountain View.

Krissy McIvor and Jennifer (Jenna) Ireland, both seniors and members of the school’s leadership class, conducted a tour of the new campus last week. Krissy moved to the area four years ago from a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and Jenna describes herself as Japanese American. They made it clear that they love their school, their teachers, freedom to learn at their own pace and a teaching style appropriate for kinesthetic learners.

“I’m excited,” Krissy said after school in Wendy Dowling’s classroom on the old campus. “This campus, it’s Alta Vista, it’s home. (The new campus) is like moving to a nicer neighborhood. The concrete isn’t cracked, the classrooms don’t smell, you can’t see the wires and insulation in the ceiling. There’s a real kitchen, a real art classroom, a theater. We have our own baseball field, our own basketball court, our own parking lot. We don’t have to rely on Mountain View High School anymore.”

“We walked through smelling the cleanness of the new buildings and thought, ‘Wow! We’re really moving in!’” Jenna said.

Krissy pointed out the gas valves for Bunsen burners at an island workstation in one of the new science classrooms. She peered through a window in a locked door and exulted, “We have our own library!” Alta Vista has library books now, but they’re kept in the English classroom.

The movers arrive next Monday. After the holidays, the school’s seven teachers will set up the classrooms they designed themselves.

“We’re working as a school together to pack everything up, then we’ll unpack it,” Krissy said.

Students are already thinking of improvements. Krissy wants a mural in the multi and student artwork on classroom walls. Students want a canvas canopy over the basketball court so they can play in rainy weather; they’re thinking of proposing a matching-funds arrangement to a local company.

Watching workers smooth the cement base around the plaque in front of the school last Wednesday, Superintendent Rich Fischer asked Principal Bill Pierce, “How does it feel to see your name on that plaque?”

“Indescribable. The whole thing is indescribable,” Pierce replied, indicating the campus with a sweeping gesture. “I feel like a kid at Christmas.”