Boosters want to halt plan to demolish Canyon High baseball's clubhouse

ANAHEIM HILLS ? Baseball players and parents at Canyon High School are crying foul over a school district plan to tear down a storage room and de-facto locker room that boosters spent thousands of dollars to have built just three years ago.

Several players have vowed that they would stand in the way of demolition crews or even chain themselves to the building to prevent it from being torn down.

That demolition could come as early as Wednesday, officials said.

"This is a room that means a lot to these players and to what has been a very successful program," said R.J. Knutson, the former president of the boosters' club and the father of a varsity baseball player who graduated in June. "We just want them to delay it so we can talk this through and find a way to keep this building standing."

In fall 2009, baseball boosters spent $36,000 ? in cash and in-kind donations ? to build a 12-foot-wide-by-30-foot-long room behind the home dugout on the varsity field.

The metal-framed and plaster-exterior building, nicknamed Champions Room, serves as a storage room for baseball gear and field-maintenance equipment. It includes plywood lockers, which the players use to change into uniforms before and after the game ? prior to the building's construction, they had to use a locker room across campus. Or they changed in their cars.

The building was approved by school and district officials and OK'd by a structural engineer, Knutson said. But it didn't get approval through the Division of the State Architect, the California agency that approves new campus buildings.

Officials with the Orange Unified School District said the lack of DSA approval is the problem. The new construction means that it must be compatible with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act standards and other requirements for smoke alarms, emergency exits and more.

District board member Diane Singer said she understands why the parents and students are upset. But the building has to go, she said.

The board voted to demolish it months ago, she said, as a plan to get rid of eight buildings district-wide that don't meet regulations.

"The fact is that it's unsafe and it opens us up to liability if we let these buildings remain," Singer said.

She said retrofitting the Canyon High building would cost up to $200,000.

Knutson said the district's communication with parents, who raised the money and attracted donors, has been poor. Singer agreed to schedule a meeting with some of those boosters to try to find resolution.

"To call that building unsafe is just not right. This is a very solid building," Knutson said.

Coach Joe Hoggatt said the room ? especially because it carries the name Champions Room ? is a source of pride for his players, present and past.

The Canyon High Comanches, who play in the Century League, have captured 13 league titles and played in six CIF finals, said Hoggatt, also a former player and a 1989 graduate of Canyon High.

"It's something we didn't have when I was (playing) here. It's a huge plus for this program to have a facility like this,' Hoggatt said.

"I've heard talk about the players wanting to stand in the way if they try to demolish it. I don't encourage that, I want them to be safe," he said. "But that's how much it means to them."

Contact the writer: 714-704-3769 or ecarpenter@ocregister.com

Source: http://www.ocregister.com/news/room-362851-building-district.html

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