Valley Voice Newspaper

Food Court Plaza Coming to Downtown

By Dave Adalian

Tulare - Young, newly planted trees sway in the hot summer breeze, held in place by guide wires while their roots establish. Around them, a freshly seeded lawn grows in patches that still show bare ground underneath. Everywhere else is dust and workmen who hurry between the white mission-style buildings of Tulare's newest campus, readying it for its Aug. 14 opening.

“It looks like a college,” said Tulare Joint Union High School District trustee Adrian Holguin.

But it's not. The grouping of buildings on Bardsley Avenue east of Mooney Boulevard is Mission Oaks High School, home of the Hawks, and it's not supposed to look like the rest of the high schools in and around Tulare County.
“It turned out nicer than I thought it would be,” Holguin said. “When you see blueprints, you can't imagine what it will be.”

It isn't just the eye-pleasing look of MOHS that makes it different, said the school's first principal, Isidro Carrasco. The layout of MOHS is more compact than other schools and its form is intended to aid functionality.

“The design is such that the buildings are in a circle,” he said. “The idea is it makes the students and activities easier to supervise.”

School personnel will find out if that design works when an estimated 700 freshmen and sophomores file in for their first day of classes on Aug. 14, just 10 days after the MOHS administration moves in for the first time.

“It's very exciting when you walk on campus,” Carrasco said. “On Aug. 4, we'll be moving boxes in.”

Students and staff alike will have a bit of time to settle in before the rest of Tulare gets its first look. The school will host an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony at 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 18. The public is invited to attend.

Once the newness wears off, it will be a typical high school experience for all involved, with students attending the same classes as their counterparts at the city's other two schools. It won't be quite that normal for the MOHS athletes, who will compete against students from new schools in Clovis, Delano and Bakersfield in an unofficial “Freeway League.”

Eventually, as the school nears its 1,200-student capacity, the black-and-purple-clad Hawks, a mascot chosen because of its importance in the local environment, will become part of the East Yosemite League. EYL membership includes the city's two other high schools.

For this year's students, it's still not too late to join the sports programs.
“If they're interested, they can come out to those practices and talk to the coaches,” Carrasco said. “We haven't even had tryouts yet.”

Football and volleyball workouts begin Aug. 4, cross country and girls golf meet the first time on Aug. 11, and girls' tennis meetings began in July.

While the staff at MOHS won't be of a higher caliber than their colleagues at the city's other schools, there may be a different attitude, Carrasco said.

“Most of the people coming out to Mission Oaks are coming because they want to make a difference,” he said. “The teachers, administrators and coaches want to start a new tradition of making a difference in young peoples' lives, establishing a good foundation in the lives of young people going out there.”

New High School Ready for Students

“It looks like a college,” said Tulare Joint Union High School District trustee Adrian Holguin.

“The design is such that the buildings are in a circle,” he said. “The idea is it makes the students and activities easier to supervise.”

“It's very exciting when you walk on campus,” Carrasco said. “On Aug. 4, we'll be moving boxes in.”

Football and volleyball workouts begin Aug. 4, cross country and girls golf meet the first time on Aug. 11, and girls' tennis meetings began in July.

While the staff at MOHS won't be of a higher caliber than their colleagues at the city's other schools, there may be a different attitude, Carrasco said.

Principal has Roots in Tulare

Tulare - When Isidro Carrasco left Tulare for his native Texas in 2003, he was only a teacher. When the 2008 school year opens, Carrasco will be the head man at Tulare's new Mission Oaks High School.

“We'll see how it goes,” the soft-spoken veteran of Tulare's classrooms said. “It's exciting and nervous.”

Carrasco began teaching in 1989 and became a high school Spanish teacher in Tulare in 1990, a job he held for 13 years before he and wife, Cleo, along with their four children, moved east.

While living in the nation's second-largest state, Carrasco served as an assistant principal at a middle school and then at a high school before getting his first principal position at a charter school. The family returned to Tulare in 2007.

“I came back a year early just to set up the school,” he said.

Returning with them were their four children, Veronica, 11th-grader Vanessa, ninth-grader Caleb and eighth-grader David. When Caleb begins high school on Aug. 14, it will be at Mission Oaks.

The family, Carrasco said, is here to stay.

“I think we've very much become assimilated to the culture,” he said. “We're here for a while.”

First Baptist Given Nod on Cross Project

Tulare - First Baptist Church was given preference by the city to have first crack at developing property along Cross Avenue, including the National Guard Armory.

However, a glitch has already surfaced in that the city has learned while it owns the land on which the Armory sits and leases it to the National Guard for $1 a year, the National Guard owns the building. It was thought the city owned the property and the building.

“Our first goal was to use the Armory,” said the Rev. Bob Medcalf, pastor of Tulare First Baptist. “At this point, we're kind of on hold.”

In closed session last week, the city council looked at two proposals – one from the church and other from Visalia developer Harvey May – to develop the stretch of Cross immediately west of the church property, including both the ponding basin and the Armory.

May had proposed building medical offices on the four city-owned parcels. The church indicated it wanted the land to expand its youth services – including using the armory as a gym – and to develop a senior daycare facility.

After looking at both proposals, the council directed staff to work with the church on its plans.

Redevelopment Director Bob Nance made it clear the council has not made a final decision, but that the church would be given the first opportunity to come up with a solid proposal.

“At this point, we're pleased the city felt long term, our plan was a good one,” said Medcalf. “They're going to give us the opportunity.”

Monkey Wrench

However, the news the city did not own the armory building has thrown a monkey wrench into the plans. Medcalf said the city was going to assist the church in negotiating with the National Guard.

The city's request for proposals required the would-be developers to work with the city to build a new armory for the National Guard. The new facility would be built to Guard specifications and at city cost.

Medcalf said the church would be happy to purchase the armory or to lease it, but an attempt to rent the building in the past failed.

“For now, our hope is with the city's help we can work out an agreement to utilize the building,” he said.

Medcalf has said the only way the church can grow and offer the programs it wants to offer for youth, senior citizens and others is to acquire the property.

He also said the church would improve the looks of the building so “it will be a much nicer piece of the Cross Avenue corridor.” The armory would serve the students attending Tulare Christian School as well as the youth of First Baptist, he said.

Purchasing the four parcels would allow the church to create more green space and explore the possibility of building low-cost housing for senior citizens or even a center for people with Alzheimer's disease, he said.

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