San Ramon Elementary School Unveils New Multipurpose Room Friday

For nearly 45 years, there hasn't been an indoor space at San Ramon Elementary School large enough to accommodate the entire student body. Assemblies and special events have been held outside, weather permitting, or held several times for smaller groups in the double-wide portable classroom that served as an extra large room on campus for years.

That all changes Friday, as school and Novato Unified School District officials hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for San Ramon's first-ever multipurpose room, the result of a $1.9 million project that dates back nearly 11 years.

Built in 1968, San Ramon did not have a multi-purpose room as it was built during the open classroom era. It is composed of three round buildings — technically nine-sided —with seven classrooms in each plus a common space in the middle. The classrooms were clustered in groups or pods with partial walls dividing the classrooms and each classroom cluster had a common area in the middle.

The common space encourages classes to work together and is large enough for special lessons or individualized instruction, but not large enough for a schoolwide gathering, according to school officials.

Parents, teachers, former students and a bevy of people from all over the community over a nearly 11-year span have made the multipurpose room a reality, with many of the parents who got the project started having watched their kids pass through the school many years ago.

"The Multipurpose room has been something like 11 years in the making, all driven by a dream that some parents had and now there kids have graduated high school," said Larry Thoms, who spearheaded the re-painting project for our school buildings’ domes. Thoms hailed the volunteer spirit of the effort, noting that Kerrigan Painting donated the tools for the painting of the tops of the pods.

"This is just one way we can help our kids by showing them we care about them, the school and save the district money," Thoms said.

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