What You Don’t Know About Rio

Nicolas Gorman, Mirada Staff
May 22, 2020

Rio Americano High School

What you don't know

The Senior Building

Ever wondered what this house-like structure is doing in the back of our school? This building has been here for decades, but the exact date it was built is unknown. It used to be a place where senior citizens would take classes about computers and even code. Classes were during school time, usually from 8:00AM-3:00PM Monday-Friday. About 3 years ago, the organization dissolved and the classes stopped, but before closing, they donated money to our school and our district for letting them use that space. The property and building are owned by our school. Right now the place is used for storage and the majority of items inside are desks.

The Garden

Have you seen this garden outside the A wing? It used to be an area where special education kids would go out and work and maintain. When in use, the garden held fruits/vegetables and flowers; however, It just simply hasn’t been used in the past few years. This year, two civitas students were supposed to revive the garden, but after school closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining the garden was impossible.

The Temporary Building

If you look closely you can see a black border on the ground. This was the T wing (for temporary). It was built in November of 2000 and was only compromised of one building (T-1). Constructed during a time of “modernization,” (removing asbestos, changing to a modern HVAC system, lighting systems, and wheelchair access) whole wings had to be moved into a platoon of portable classrooms. Teachers would take turns using the building until their classroom was modernized. When modernization was finished, the building was taken down and shipped to another high school or middle school campus that was being modernized. T-1 contained a pebbled gray floor, lower-than-usual ceiling, dimmable lights, and lab peninsulas like you can find in Mr. Montbriand’s (D-8) chemistry classroom. The front of the classroom featured a long lab bench (demo table) and sliding whiteboards with plenty of storage behind them.

From the 33 years Mr. Baird has been teaching at Rio and of all the different classrooms he has taught in, T-1 has been his favorite. He was also the first teacher to move in.