5 Years Ago
Welcome (or Welcome Back)! And a special welcome to the Class of 2014.
“This Week in NMH History,” premieres for the 2010-11 school year. Each week in this space you will have the opportunity to learn about the history of your school: to see how it has changed or remained unchanged with the passage of time.
The stories told in “This Week…” come from a variety of sources: viewbooks and catalogues from years past, newspapers, literary magazines, even schedules hold information about our past which inform our present.
Our opening installment reminds us that history is happening all the time (some of you already know this), and that our history on one campus is relatively short. It was only five years ago, after 92 years as single-sex institutions, followed by 34 years as a two-campus coeducational secondary school, that we began a new chapter as a one-campus, coeducational institution. This was a singular moment in our history. Witness one small part of it as it was recorded in the alumni magazine:
From NMH Magazine; fall 2005; vol. 8, no.1; p.10.
OVERSEEING A MONUMENTAL TASK
“If you’re baking a cake and need to get it done fast you don’t turn the heat from 350 degrees to 650,” says Stan Pitchko, director of plant facilities. “In the same way putting pressure on the folks in the field doesn’t make things happen any faster. It just burns the cake.”
…Pitchko, who’s in charge of capital construction, the power plant, water and sewer systems, the campus mail system, grounds and custodial crews, tradespeople, and safety and security, sees himself primarily as an orchestrator. If so, he just conducted the equivalent of Mahler’s Resurrection.
Last year the campus had 428 students; this year there are 717. The campus is currently supporting 48 percent more infrastructure than in the past, and by the time all planned capital construction is done, the campus will grow by 200,000 square feet. Over the summer, along with the usual repairs and renovations, there were additions, whole building makeovers, space conversions, and countless moves.
“I knew it was going to be a monumental task,” says Pitchko, who became director of plant facilities four months after the trustees voted to consolidate the campuses in January 2004. “We’ve had what we call ‘flies in the ointment,’ but we’ve always worked through it.”
Five years later, we remain surrounded by those who did all the hard work to get us to where we were then, and who have continued to work to get us to where are now: we are ever in their debt, don’t forget to thank them. – ed.
From NBC Bay Area, May 5, 2010 –
