As Bowman High School gears up for the school year, students can be guaranteed a year of relaxation as the William S. Hart Union High School District installed a new outdoor wellness space during the summer.
Along with the revamped space, which includes a small bulldog statue, a small fountain on a timer, an egg chair, a hammock, four planted trees with apples, apricots, peaches and plums, benches and gardening containers, a resource center is also in the process of being stocked. Students will be able to take food home from the food bank stocked by SCV Grocers, as well as clothes that were donated by NorthPark Community Church, an initiative directed by Bowman Social Worker Elizabeth Tarantini.
Michael Otavka, director of Facilities, Planning and Construction for the William S. Hart Union High School District, discussed the 10-week process of construction after a year and a half of planning.
“Bowman High School doesn’t have space for a Wellness Center in a building, so what we’ve done is we created a plaza space as an outdoor space — it has brick paving, it has a shaded area, it has a place where you can sit outside,” Otavka said. “The school is also going to be operating what’s called a ‘Resource Center,’ where it has a sliding glass door and a window, air conditioning, supplies, things like that … We had a landscape architect come in and design the plaza, and then we went through a bid process.”
Bowman Principal Nina Zamora reflected on the reasoning for creating a new wellness space, even though the area was a grassy area prior to the renovations.
“We wanted to create an outdoor space that was a peaceful place for students to congregate. We have our resource center that is still not finished yet, but we will have food and clothing for students to access whenever they want or need,” Zamora said. “We’re working on getting the Resource Center up and going. The container was delivered just right before school, so getting all the parts to get it ready is such an amazing use of this space.”
The Resource Center has yet to be officially named, and students will vote to select a name of their choosing, according to Zamora.
“Right now, we’re calling it the Resource Center. We’re actually going to put it to vote with students, so students are going to get to determine what we really call that space,” Zamora said. “The students are so excited. We’ve had a couple graduates come back and ask, ‘How come this wasn’t here when I was here?’ But what a gift it is to have this. And the district did a phenomenal job with the design.”
A focus for Zamora, along with the help of the staff, was to ensure that students weren’t confined to a wellness room.
“Elizabeth and I were looking at pushing out wellness spaces so it wasn’t within a confined room, so that wellness is being handled if a student is struggling [with the help] of our amazing school counselors. The individual space will become more of a private experience for the students.”
The process started while students were off campus and at the start of their summer break.
“The process was faster than I thought it would be, but it came out to be so beautiful. It’s stunning. The plants are new, they’re so tiny, but when it fills in, it’s going to be even better. The kids can take vegetables home with them, fresh veggies and fruit. And, when the trees eventually grow bigger, they’ll provide a lot of great shade as well,” Zamora said.
