"After a year-and-a-half construction process, it's nice to enjoy our new site," said Principal Roseanne Adonna.

Adonna said guests, retired faculty, district board members, parents, students, teachers and staff are being invited to a reception on Jan. 21 at 10:15 a.m. to celebrate the occasion in the new cafeteria. District Superintendent Mary Ann Park will speak, along with fifth-grader and student body president Natalie Gibbens, who will explain more about who Louise Van Meter was and the history of the school. The school's song and cheer performances will be followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and student-led tours of the new site.

"It is exciting that [the construction] is over," Adonna said. "But when you look back, it seems that the time went really, really quickly."

Longtime Los Gatos resident Jubie Jaramillo, who once taught fourth and fifth grades at Van Meter, remembers graduating from University Avenue School in 1950 at age 13. That year, she said her class celebrated with a graduation dance in the once-new cafeteria at Van Meter.

"They had just finished the cafeteria," she recalled.

Jaramillo, a 1955 graduate of Los Gatos High School, said she's looking forward to attending the Van Meter grand opening, especially to see the new classrooms and better lighting.

Campus modernization and construction in the Los Gatos Union School District is progressing at an excellent pace as the district heads into its second winter of construction.

Jim Silva, district director of facilities, planning and construction, said two of the five district schools are nearing completion, and two new projects are well into the design phase. The construction is all funded by money from the Measure B bond election, passed by voters in 2001.

The Raymond J. Fisher Middle School campus has taken on a whole new look, with the construction of the new multiuse building, kitchen and two-story steel classroom building in the middle of campus. The kitchen will be ready for use in early January, with the rest of the building scheduled to open around May. The two-story building will house administration, general classrooms and student activities downstairs, with eight new science classrooms upstairs. The locker rooms and gym were completed during the holiday break.

Students at Fisher already occupy 19 renovated classrooms and a new computer lab, with 16 more classrooms scheduled for occupancy in late spring. All construction is slated for completion on schedule, including removal of portables by next summer, in time for the opening of school in August 2004.

Design teams from Blossom Hill and Daves Avenue elementary schools, which include parents and staff members, have been hard at work with district architects the past six months developing the individual campuses to fit the needs of students and the surrounding community. Each site will hold a two-story classroom building, new libraries, new kindergarten classrooms and remodeling of other existing classrooms. New and improved parking areas are also being included.

The design process is expected to be completed by early spring 2005, with bidding and construction tentatively scheduled to begin in late spring 2005.

To attend Van Meter's grand opening, call 408.335.2250.