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The Pleasanton Unified School District’s contracted construction crews broke ground on the Amador Valley High School campus renovation project this summer and have now begun demolishing the small gym and the wrestling room this week as they make their way to the Amador Theater.
The work is part of the district’s overall plan to construct the new athletic and performing arts facilities at the school, which was one of the marquee projects funded by Measure I, the $395 million general obligation bond voters approved four years ago.
While the demolition of the nearly century-old theater — which some residents initially opposed years ago when the renovation plans were announced — has been delayed, the district is expecting the construction team to begin tearing it down sometime in the near future.
“The Amador Valley theater holds so many memories for our students, staff, alumni, and community, and we recognize the significance of this moment,” Superintendent Maurice Ghysles told the Pleasanton Weekly in a statement.
“At the same time, this project represents a transformative investment in future generations of students, made possible by the support of our community for Measure I,” Ghysels added. “I’m incredibly grateful to our Facilities and Construction team for the care and coordination required to manage a project of this complexity.”
The PUSD Board of Trustees first approved the $85 million design-build agreement to construct the new athletic and performing arts facilities in January 2025. According to the district, the overall project budget is approximately $95.8 million.
The scope of the project includes demolishing the existing theater in order to build a new performing arts center; modernizing the existing music building; remodel the existing competition gym into a practice gym and locker rooms; tear down the existing small gym; and construct a new competition gym.
Over this past summer break, the construction team from Blach Construction began renovating the existing locker rooms, installing new utilities and preparing the existing gym and theater for demolition.
According to the construction team at the site, they were given the green light to begin demolition on Tuesday after they had to wait for PG&E to shut off power to the impacted structures. They said they had to wait until they were sure it was safe to begin tearing down that larger structure.
Sam Marquez, a project engineer at Blach Construction, said the goal with the theater’s demolition is to knock it down on top of itself in order to create a ramp so that the construction crews can get up to the tower, which he described to be the “most difficult part” of the overall demolition.
“That thing is like a 12-inch thick concrete wall all the way around,” he said, noting how that is the part they really want to get done before school starts.
He said after that, the hard part will be breaking up the concrete into manageable pieces and separating the rebar from those pieces in order for it all to be hauled away. He said managing all that rubble will carry into the school year.
Marquez added that construction of the new gym and performing arts center will take place simultaneously throughout the school year.
“They’re both going to be going on at the same time and it’ll be fairly heavy construction up front,” Marquez said. “But once the … steel structure (goes in), I would say it starts getting a little bit less impactful noise wise and disruption wise.”
But instead of demolishing the theater first, crews started with the wrestling room and part of the small gym Tuesday. The plan is to work their way up to the theater in the coming weeks.
According to PUSD safety and communication coordinator Susanne Frey, the order was done because of “safety reasons”.
As far as the new structures, Marquez said they expect to begin constructing those sometime in the fall or winter.
