Just like the typical grocery store item that has increased in price, inflation has triggered a rise in construction costs in Palo Alto. According to PAUSD Facilities and Construction Director Eric Holm, each square foot of commercial construction costs $700 to $1100. Additional soft costs for aspects of renovations and constructions such as designs, furniture planning and permit fees can add more than 30 to the construction’s non-interior costs. Classrooms range from 900 to 1,100 square feet, and the average cost of building a classroom has increased from $750,000 to $1.5 million in the last ten years, with projections estimating the total cost to reach around $2 million by 2028. In PAUSD, construction receives its budget from government bonds which are proposed, voted on and authorized by members of the Bond Citizens’ Oversight committee. According to the PAUSD website, The Measure A Strong Schools Bond and Measure Z Strong Schools Bond, approved by Palo Alto voters in 2008 and 2018 respectively, authorized $378 million and $460 million respectively for the district’s construction use. The amount requested is calculated with potential price growth in mind, and is utilized towards improvement in the district.

While supply chain and worker shortages due to COVID-19 have factored into this price increase, according to Holm, one of the main contributors to the total cost is the safety requirements that must be incorporated into every classroom. School buildings are considered tier two emergency services buildings, second only to hospitals, fire departments and other health care facilities. This status makes the school building’s safety and accessibility a priority. “In an earthquake or natural disaster, those buildings are the most critical, but just a hair below (them are) schools,” Holm said. “The state mandates parents to send their kids to school, (so the district) has to make the school safe for kids.” PAUSD is responsible for following certain mandates that ensure student safety. School buildings are under
the authority of the Division of the State Architect, which operates under strict structural and accessibility requirements such as compliance with the American Disabilities Act, the installation of fire safety devices and air filtration.

The construction team goes through many inspections to make sure they are following regulations. According to Hixon, these examinations have not interfered or slowed down the project’s progress.

“We adhere to all state and city guidelines for construction safety,” he said. “The experience has been great so far.”

The necessity of modern technology is another large cost in classroom construction projects. As classrooms continue
to modernize, they need to be equipped with the best materials. While it is an expense, digital projection boards and enhanced audio systems are essential to supporting teacher and student education experiences.

“Just putting a whiteboard up on the wall is a lot cheaper than putting a massive 72-inch or 60-inch TV and having all the controls to run it,” Holm said. “But all of that improves the educational experience.”

As parts of a building become detrimental to student safety, they must be replaced or repaired. These upgrades include gas phase- outs, electrical service upgrades, repairing aging infrastructure, installing air filtration and temperature control technology.

The new A-B-K building has an estimated budget of $27.5 million and includes even more extensive and specialized technology than Gunn’s other recent buildings, specifically food related technology. The project includes a complete renovation of the administrative building, as well as new food services facilities and a culinary arts classroom. Holm says that the large scope of the project contributes to its hefty price.

“The two factors (considered) are the size of the space and the number of modifications,” Holm said. “Similar to a house, a big house costs less on a per square foot basis than a small house because the base costs of construction are amortized over the entire space. A small kitchen or bathroom build or renovation will cost significantly more on a per square foot basis than a bedroom modification.”

According to Holm, general classrooms are the least expensive, followed by specialty classrooms such as art and music. This is because they are typically larger and have specialized modifications and casework. A step above are the Career Technical Education and science classrooms as they require extensive customization and equipment such as gas filtration systems. Administrative offices tend to cost even more due to the large number of interior walls and specialized spaces. Finally, highly specialized spaces like food service are the most expensive. This is reflected in the construction of the A-B-K building, as the food service section is the most expensive per square foot due to the required installation of stoves, filtration and other pieces of technology required for cooking.

A common misconception, especially about specialized classrooms, Holm noted, is the size of each classroom.Rather than a bedroom or living space, classrooms tend to be the size of a small house or apartment.

“A classroom is 1000 square feet,” he said. “That’s the  size of a small house. A 900 square foot house is selling for $1.8 million (in Palo Alto). So, by that metric, (a small) house is the same size (as a) classroom.”

Many displaced classes have relocated to portable classrooms — a part of Gunn’s campus known as the Village
— including history and less lab-based sciences that do not rely on any underground resources, such as gas lines, to run their classes. However, despite portables being almost 40% the price of a classroom, they are only temporary solutions. “A relocatable classroom is designed to be used on a temporary basis,” Holm said. “Their general life is about 20 years. They might be used longer than 20 years, but not without having problems.”

Problems may involve a leak or general wear-and-tear of materials. Portable classrooms, which can range from $50 to $150 per square foot, have thinner walls and different logistics for heating and cooling. In contrast to a physical classroom where everything is designed to circulate air in a balanced manner, portables occasionally have issues with temperature regulation, especially when smaller units are stacked together.

“The roofing is not as robust,” Holm said. “They’re not as waterproof, (and) the windows aren’t as nice. They’re a cheaper building, but then there’s a whole bunch of ways about how you install them. That changes the cost too, if they’re on a concrete foundation (versus on) a wood foundation.”

Another contributor to the cost of facilities are the constant upgrades required to ensure safety. Holm noted that if a construction team doesn’t update an establishment after it is built, they are not obligated to keep making changes. However, once they do, they must keep updating it and the other buildings around it, whether it means smartboards, alarms, HVAC systems or full renovations.

Member of the Gunn Facilities Committee Laurie Pennington says that need, impact and safety are taken into account to determine the priority of construction projects, which then determines the typical order in which projects are carried through and how they allocate funds.

“The front office building for instance, was one of the oldest buildings on campus,” she said. “It had no ventilation whatsoever. It wasn’t going to be possible just to put ventilation in that building (since) the walls were old and everything was bad.”

With the constant need to improve the quality of buildings and equipment, Holm believes that a major aspect of a successful construction project is finding an optimal time frame for each project.

“We can do a mid-year (transfer), but that’s really stressful for the teachers and students because the new room is not set up,” he said. “In a history class, (teachers might put up) historical posters, or literary (posters in an English class).(And if classes are moved,) a lot of those teacher touches are kind of invisible.”

Pennington realized that her years of experience at Gunn has allowed her to help make decisions about temporary classrooms and lodgings, which have been useful for minimizing disruption in the past.

“I’ve been here a long time,” she said. “I said, ‘If Culinary Arts is going to move out, why don’t we just put (them) back to the science (building) because all the gas is still all underneath there?’ And they hadn’t thought about that. So, it’s nice to have people that have been around for a while or people that are concerned about different departments.”

Construction has proven itself to be a far more complex process than just slotting bricks together. It takes months of planning, pitching and budgeting to finally spur a project into action. While a large part of construction cost has to do with the economy itself, directors and committees continue to strategize effective financial resource utilizations when it comes to a project that requires such a large sum of money.

Having observed the campus construction since she moved to Gunn, Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton feels the A-B-K project, set to end in December, has been worth all the time and resources and is grateful for the construction team and their work.

“I have a lot of confidence in our construction team,” Stratton said. “They’ve been really good about being communicative and inclusive. I’m really looking forward to the move and the energy that move will bring and that feeling of new beginnings.”

Premature deaths of LGBTQ+ characters aren’t isolated incidents. Fans have observed that shows with LGBTQ+ representation tend to rely on harmful tropes and unvaried or inaccurate characterization.

Junior Olivia Souter said this pattern originates from the Hays Code, self-enforced industry guidelines that restricted what content could be shown onscreen between 1930 and 1968. While adherence was not legally required, studios that violated the code could face consequences such as boycotts and loss of their production seal.

“One of those (rules) was that your characters must be straight,” Souter said. “If there are any kisses on screen, they have to be between a man and (a woman).”

In a cinematic world where “good” always triumphed, characters who presented against the straight, white, cisgender ideal were condemned for even existing. Queer characters were often subjected to brutal, gruesome deaths, especially in horror movies such as the “Scream” franchise, “Final Destination” and “The Children’s Hour.”

“You might say, ‘Why is the queer character the one that dies first and dies the most brutally?’” Souter said. “But if you’re outside of the (LGBTQ+) community, and you don’t know the implications of that, you’re just like, ‘Oh, it’s a horror movie, everyone has brutal deaths.’”

The main purpose of these deaths was shock value, so these characters and their stories didn’t lead to meaningful representation, according to Souter.

“People have to die in television,” she said. “That’s just kind of the way it works. But it’s this way of giving queer fans just a tiny little bit of what their relationship could be, and then immediately taking it away in such a brutal way.”

One of these tropes, “Bury Your Gays” — in which queer characters are subjected to tragic, untimely deaths in an attempt to evoke an emotional audience response — disproportionately affected lesbian characters, hurting the LGBTQ+ community.

“Queer fans are tired of seeing their characters die,” Souter said. “Because if that’s all the media is showing, then you’ll believe all you’re good for is dying for someone else’s story.”

Even though television shows, movies and books are moving away from these arcs, other problems have begun to arise, such as stereotypes about how LGBTQ+ characters should act, dress and behave based on their identity. Queer men are often associated with flamboyance and femininity, while queer women are portrayed as masculine or tomboyish.

According to junior Phoebe Mota-Judges, being exposed to a narrow range of perspectives limits one’s self-expression and can skew people’s relationship with their identity.

“It’s always bothered me, when how someone looks and dresses is equated to their sexuality,” Mota-Judges said. “Because even though there can be influence, there is no right and wrong way to ‘look gay.’”

Junior Noah Murase has observed similar problems with how the media utilizes cookie-cutter plotlines for LGBTQ+ characters to avoid losing audience traction.

“Two people can say they’re bisexual and both be bisexual, but have completely different interpretations that are both completely valid,” he said. “Being queer is a unique experience to every person.”

Souter encourages creators and audiences to educate themselves on harmful queer tropes and avoid holding LGBTQ+ protagonists to different standards than their heterosexual counterparts.

“They’re just two people who are in love, or they’re just a person who’s trying to figure themselves out,” Souter said. “If you treat it like it’s this big thing that requires a joke at every turn, and they can’t hold a conversation without talking about (being queer), that’s not going to go the way it should.”

Similarly, Mota-Judges hopes that the media industry makes more space for diverse identities and experiences.

“It would be nice to see more diverse representation getting celebrated and accepted — not just stories that are about struggle,” she said. “They could be science fiction, going on crazy adventures, solving murder mysteries.”

For Souter, heartfelt, dynamic stories that don’t rely on stereotypical and harmful characterizations of queer characters can have a lasting impact.

“Representation is really, really important, especially in media that’s aimed at kids, teenagers and young adults,” Souter said. “Because being able to see someone onscreen who looks like you, acts like you, has similar disabilities or loves the same way that you do is really, really powerful.”

The past few years have seen an upsurge in film or visual-media counterparts to popular childhood book series. Junior Stella Su remembers watching several older adaptations of her favorite childhood books — including “Harry Potter,” “The Giver” and “James and the Giant Peach” — and thinks adaptations may be going downhill.

Composition and Literature of Visual Media teacher Justin Brown said that the rubric for a good adaptation has many dimensions. In his experience, the best and most satisfying adaptations stay true to the original novel: capturing the theme, understanding the characters and imitating the writer’s style.

“In a movie, you need to have conflict in every single moment — otherwise, the audience gets bored,” Brown said. “There needs to be something at stake every moment. And a part of what’s wonderful about books is they just provide a texture to the characters in a way that films can rarely do now.”

Another problem, Brown notes, is that many directors struggle to compress the full depth of a novel into one movie. This notion is shifting, however, as many adaptations such as “Percy Jackson” move away from the movie format and into a multi-episode show.

“Now, so much mainstream entertainment is about serialized streaming stories where they’re going to spend six seasons adapting a book,” Brown said. “Those are situations where you can really do justice to it.”

Su agrees that attempting to cram a large amount of content into a film can ruin the pacing but also notices how adaptations of shorter books, such as “The Giver,” tend to stretch out unnecessary scenes and include their own details.

Freshman Ofer Kranz, who has read the “Percy Jackson” book series and watched both the movie and recent show adaptations, also appreciates the benefits of a series. She recalls the anticipation she and other fans felt waiting for the first episode to air.

“I forced my parents to watch it,” Kranz said. “It was good, really good. And I thought, ‘Finally, it’s here. Finally, we can breathe.’” Though there were a few disappointments with pacing and altered scenes, Kranz recognizes that there is no perfect adaptation and recommends the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” show for its stronger fidelity to the book series than its movie counterparts.

“They looked at more independent details that weren’t really portrayed in movies,” Kranz said. “They did a really good job with the characters and other details so I definitely prefer the series to the movies, but the books will always be on top.”

With these recent adaptations, Su also hopes to see tributes to smaller book series, and underappreciated or newer novels.

“It’s kind of a shame that (companies) usually only adapt books when they get really popular because a lot of times they try to bank on the already existing popularity,” Su said. “And so obviously some good books don’t get adapted.”

Exploring new gameplay strategies allowed Zhang a reprieve from everyday life, and she enjoyed looking out for new skins or updates.

“There’s a lot of techniques in the game,” Zhang said. “Sometimes I watch streamers or pro-players and try to improve myself.”

Nowadays, Zhang finds herself gaming less, but Valorant remains her favorite game: She enjoys its competitive nature and being able to play with friends.

“It’s more fun that way,” Zhang said. “I would definitely recommend (joining) with people who don’t get angry easily based on how you or your teammates are playing.”

Familiar with the darker side of gaming, Zhang encourages aspiring gamers to be aware of their limits.

“When you keep losing games, it gets kind of frustrating,” she said. “Don’t take the game too competitively or too seriously because it will ruin your relationship with (it).”

This longstanding relationship has fostered educational and cultural exchanges. Stanford professors pilot curricula in PAUSD schools, PAUSD students attend Stanford summer programs and many Stanford faculty members double as PAUSD parents.

According to Social Studies Instructional Lead Jeff Patrick, however, Stanford’s influence is strongest in the realm of teacher education. Many PAUSD teachers are trained through Stanford’s 12-month, full-time Stanford Teacher Education Program.

“The program exposes them to some of the resources that Stanford has, as well as some other approaches to teaching,” Patrick said.

Gunn departments also draw on Stanford’s resources for lesson plans. Originally founded at Stanford, the Digital Inquiry Group — previously known as the Stanford History Education Group — provides supplemental lesson plans for Gunn social studies classes. YouCubed, an organization founded by Stanford’s Dr. Jo Boaler, provides the curriculum for Gunn’s Introduction to Data Science course.

According to Gunn alumna and current Stanford freshman Olivia Pham, Stanford’s and Gunn’s educational approaches share striking similarities beyond curricula.

“There’s a strong emphasis on not just understanding concepts, but being able to apply them in slightly different ways you’ve never seen before,” she said. “While friends here have told me that math here at Stanford is much more rigorous than at their a pretty smooth transition between Gunn and Stanford.”

In that way, Stanford influences Palo Alto’s culture of — and value for — educational excellence. Gunn alumnus and current Stanford freshman Jules Lustig noted that Gunn and Stanford have the same “grind culture”: an atmosphere of constant drive, strict discipline and high standards.

During Gunn alumnus and current Stanford sophomore Alex Gu’s time with Gunn Math Circle, he took part in the Stanford Math Tournament, a nationwide high-school competition hosted by the Stanford University Math Organization. Student involvement extends beyond STEM, however: Current Gunn sophomore Emerson Chang took part in the Stanford Humanities Circle and found herself interested by the discussion-based, grade-free nature of the program.

“Stanford provides Gunn students with many educational opportunities outside of high school, which allows them to explore their personal interests in unique ways,” Chang said.

Gunn alumnus and current Stanford freshman Jude Hardan hopes for further cooperation between Gunn and Stanford.

“Having such a prestigious academic institution close to Gunn and not using it for collaborations to enhance the educational experience is not the best use of resources for students,” he said.

Lustig echoed this sentiment, adding that he’d like to see a Stanford-Gunn course centered around eliminating students’ fear of failure and instead inculcating love for a subject or field.

“It would be really cool to facilitate some sort of program out of class,” Lustig said. “Something that involves getting away from the numerical grade that is not a measure of intelligence and not a measure of how successful you are in any way.”