Pleasanton Celebrates Groundbreaking At Amador Valley High School

PLEASANTON, CA — A ceremony took place Wednesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new shade structure at Amador Valley High School, for which the community group We Are Pleasanton raised funds.

The group, which supports Pleasanton’s schools, raised $225,000 for the project from 150 donors. It formed last year after the failure of Measure M, which would have funded a variety of school facility projects.

Todd Utikal, a restaurant owner and We Are Pleasanton volunteer who initiated the project, said he believed the cause was popular because it provided concrete, visible benefit to the community. The shade will offer students some relief from the lunchtime heat and open up possibilities for outdoor classes, Utikal said.

"I think people donated to this because it was very specific," Utikal said at the ceremony. "We made it very clear where your money was going, and so I think they'll see the results in a couple months."

Utikal doesn’t have any children attending the high school, but several of his employees are Amador Valley students, he said. He talked to them about things the school needed, and more shade was a request that came up frequently.

Utikal also talked with parents and looked at what Measure M would have funded had it passed. Once he had decided on the shade structure, he said the community rallied around the cause.

We Are Pleasanton partnered with the nonprofit Pleasanton Partnerships in Education, Utikal said. The nonprofit group helped facilitate tax-deductible donations to We Are Pleasanton, which does not have nonprofit status.

The ceremony on Wednesday was more of a celebration than an actual groundbreaking. Because of supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the arrival of construction materials may be delayed, Utikal said. The project was intended to be completed in August, before the school year begins, but may have to be pushed back.

The groundbreaking ceremony marked We Are Pleasanton's first successful project, Utikal said. it’s a positive sign of community support for future school improvement projects, he added.

We Are Pleasanton now turns its focus to raising funds for a field at Pleasanton Middle School that will serve the 8,000 children who play sports there.