There’s a lot going on at Nativity School in Menlo Park. Inside the main building, the elementary school is in session. Outside, surrounded by green netting fences, construction is under way for a new multi-use facility and a separate kindergarten on the property located at the corner of Oak Grove Avenue and Laurel Street.
Work started last June, the week after the Nativity carnival. It’s due to be completed in June 2008, just in time for next year’s Nativity carnival.
“We have to be finished in time for the carnival,” says Russ Castle, building and facilities manager and Nativity parent. “It’s a big money-maker and is helping pay for this project. It makes in excess of $100,000 a year.”
That’s not exactly peanuts, but it’s only a small amount of the $6,960,000 needed to complete the construction. The projected cost of the multi-purpose pavilion is $4.18 million, and the kindergarten, $580,000. Site work is projected at $2.2 million.
Money raised to date includes a number of large gifts from individuals, families and foundations, including a matching fund pledge from the Spieker Family Foundation.
The building program came about because of the need for a new kindergarten. The existing kindergarten, located in a portable building, is more than 20 years old. It soon will be in violation of the city’s ordinance on temporary structures.
According to Mr. Castle, the school’s building committee decided that as long as Nativity had to build the kindergarten, why not go ahead with a new multi-purpose facility?
The project is part of an ambitious six-year renovation effort for the 135-year-old school and church, where Msgr. Steven Otellini is pastor.
At present, Nativity is the only Catholic elementary school on the Peninsula without a gym. That means the school has to spend more than $10,000 a year to rent facilities, such as Red Morton Gym in Redwood City.
For years, a 100-year-old building has served as the school’s meeting hall, gym and kitchen. The hall accommodates 120 people. The school community numbers 330 (students, teachers and staff). The new building will hold 500 people.
The handsome new facility will be constructed of split-face textured, taupe-color cinder block. The main part of the building will house the gym, with smaller one-story additions on each side that will contain a kitchen, storage rooms, and bathrooms. The gym will also boast a platform that can be used for the school’s annual Christmas performance, with enough portable bleachers to seat the entire student body. A dining patio will be located on the Laurel Street side of the building.
Carol Trelut, principal at Nativity for the past six years, is excited about the new kindergarten, which will house 35 children, the same number now squeezed in a wide trailer. “It’s going to be a separate mini-school for little kids,” she says.
The redwood frame building will have a large classroom, sinks for art projects, carpeted space for story time, and small fry bathrooms. It will have its own play area and be fenced separately from the rest of the school. “It will be state-of-the-art with all the newest equipment,” she says.
The Nativity kindergarten is an all-day program from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with extended care available if needed. The children have class in the morning. After a one-hour lunch and play period, they nap at 1:15 p.m. Afternoons are devoted to music, Spanish and computer time.
Mr. Castle, who was also in charge of renovating the historic Church of the Nativity in 1997, has only good things to say about the project’s building team.
“They are very accommodating. They will do whatever we want,” he says.
They are also right on schedule. General contractor is SC Builders of Santa Clara. The project manager is Steve Dunne, a past graduate of the school.
The architect, Bill Gutgsell, of Keller and Daseking Architects in Menlo Park, is a Nativity parent. Mr. Castle is both a Nativity parent and a graduate of the school.
Founded in 1956, Nativity School, located at Oak Grove Avenue and Laurel Street in Menlo Park, serves 300 children in grades K-8. There are no plans to increase enrollment.
A majority of the children do not live in the parish. Principal Trelut is proud of the fact that 48 percent of the school’s population comes from culturally diverse backgrounds and approximately 15 percent receives financial aid.
“We want our eighth-graders to know it’s a world of diversification,” says Ms. Trelut. “We want our girls to know there’s more to life than designer necklaces and handbags.”
