When Sierra Pacific High School opened its doors in 2009, it was to help address overcrowding at Hanford High and Hanford West with the idea that the school could expand at a later date.
It seems that date has come at last.
This past month, construction began at Sierra Pacific, which will add multiple buildings and classrooms to the campus.
According to Sierra Pacific Principal Jamie Rogers, the first building, M1, is expected to be open for the 2026-27 school year, and the second building, J3, should be open for the following year.
The two buildings are quite large, with ample room for classrooms. Rogers explained that J3 and M1 will replace the brown portables, and teachers such as Mercedes Keith, Simon McGulpin, and Ulysses Navaro will be moved to the new building.
While the white portables owned by the school will stay put, Rogers said, the classes they contain will be shuffled around, and the buildings themselves repurposed. The only exception is the bank, which will stay in its original location.
There will be two business finance classes, an ASB classroom, a student store, and a BFA custom prep classroom in the larger building, M1, with 13 classrooms total. M1 is on the left side of the walkway going between the buildings. Building J3 is the Fine Arts wing, with four classrooms: three for Visual Arts and a Performing Arts practice space. J3 is next to M1, on the right side of the walkway, and it will but up against the back of the 500s.
Construction started on schedule on Oct. 8 after the school district’s board of trustees approved a bid by Ardent General Inc. to build the project, which is estimated to cost $16-17 million according to district records.
According to Rogers, the construction is aimed to have minimal effect on students.
“We are going to try to minimize the impact on the kids as much as possible,” Rogers said. Students will see three main impacts that directly affect them, besides the occasional dust and construction sounds.
Those at school that will have the biggest impact are the Sierra Pacific band, which has been using the extra space as its practice field. They will be relocated to some of the other HJUHSD practice facilities near the track.
Some of the intramural sports, which have been using the field for their games and practices, will either need to be moved to another location or dropped from the program entirely and replaced.
Pickup and dropoff from the road near the 500s will need to be cut off, as that area is being used for machinery and other equipment, and the gate will be closed. Students will be redirected to the gate nearer the pool for pickup and drop off.
For students, it opens up a new elective option, a ceramics class. Megan Stidman will be teaching the class. She currently teaches Art 1 and 3d Design Classes. Stidman’s new classroom will have special equipment, such as a kiln, pottery wheels, and a clay mixer, as well as her ordinary art supplies for her Art 1 and 3d Design classes. Stidman has taught at Sierra Pacific for three years, although she originally applied specifically for the ceramics job. Principal Rogers explained, “The forethought was that they were hiring her, and that when that new building was built that she would take over the ceramics program.”
