Fitting the task to the time at hand
Megan Chang, TETER Associate and Engineer, Voice of Reason Opinion is featured the the Zweig Letter.
Engineering Management: Variable Control Beyond the Classroom
Virtual Presentation by TETER Mechanical Engineers to engineering students
New sports complex opens in Cutler-Orosi
The new Orosi High School sports complex is an amazing facility for the high school and community. The expanded baseball, football and soccer facilities will greatly support the athletic, emotional and social development of the Orosi High School students.
“TETER is so excited to be a part of another great project with Cutler Orosi Joint Unified School District. We are especially pleased that the community will have use of these facilities for community sports and that everyone can use the splash park and exercise track. This new facility is another step toward completing the district facility master plan and a huge step towards “Building a Better Valley”. – Robert Thornton, TETER Partner and Architect of Record
Watch ABC30 Action News’ coverage of the grand opening ceremonies
Originally broadcast on ABC30 Action News on October 21, 2020
OROSI, Calif. (KFSN) — The Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District celebrated their new sports complex on Tuesday.
The complex is located next to Orosi High School and includes a splash pad, playground, and fields for football, soccer, softball, and baseball.
The project is six years in the making, and was funded in part by Measure E.
Tulare County Supervisor Eddie Valero says it will be a place where the community’s youth can build relationships with peers and practice sportsmanship.
“This sports complex reflects the improvement to community and the wherewithal by leaders who dreamed big and worked hard to give back to Cutler and Orosi,” he added.
There’s still more to come for the school district. A new auditorium, aquatic complex, and gymnasium are in the planning stages.
News Story Credit: ABC Action News Brian Johnson
Raffi Soghomonian (COJUSD Maintenance Operations and Transportation Director) and Robert Thornton (TETER Partner & Architect)
Superintendent Yolanda Valdez points to the new Orosi Sports Park.
(Left to right): Mike Durant (TETER Construction Administrator), Arnoldo Espindola (TETER Project Manager), Yolanda Valdez (COJUSD Superintendent) and Robert Thornton (TETER Partner/Architect)
Fresno State Indoor Air Quality Research Project
TETER sponsors an Indoor Air Quality Research Project
Officials break ground on new Kings County Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Hanford
Ground breaking on New Sheriff’s HQ, designed by TETER, is featured on ABC30 Action News.
Originally broadcast on ABC30 Action News on October 5, 2020 by Jason Oliveria
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Kings County is getting a new sheriff’s headquarters in Hanford.
Officials broke ground Monday on the more than $8 million project that will also feature a community room for the public.
County leaders joined Sheriff David Robinson for the ceremonial turning of the dirt at the building’s future location near the jailhouse.
“As far as my career goes and my last ten years as sheriff, this is definitely a career highlight and it’s pretty amazing,” said Sheriff David Robinson.
Kings County Sheriff David Robinson
The new facility will double the current bulding’s size to about 15,000 square feet and will cost $8.2 million.
Assemblymember Rudy Salas is credited with securing $7 million from Sacramento to help make the project a reality.
“This will be a more permanent place for the sheriff’s office and hopefully will be a solution for the next 50-plus years, so I’m very proud to be a part of that,” said Assemblymember Salas.
Assemblymember Rudy Salas
“With the support of the Board of Supervisors on a 5-0 vote, they voted to add $1.2 million more to this project to make sure this project got done,” said Sheriff Robinson.
The department has operated out of its current building on Lacey Boulevard since 1964 and when the new jail was built in 2007, the jail and headquarters were separated.
The new facility will be located next to the jail, making it easier to book suspects or for employees to walk from one building to the next.
“Now that they’re literally going to be next-door neighbors and right next to each other, it’s going to bring more efficiency in. We have managers that will be able to communicate directly and within just a few steps, we’re going to have people that can communicate and work together on things,” said Sheriff Robinson.
Construction will begin right away with an estimated completion date by early 2022.
News Story Credit: ABC Action News Reporter Jason Oliveira
New school honors the memory of pioneering Stockton educator and proud Filipina
Ribbon cutting ceremony at Flora Arca Mata E.S. (designed by TETER)
Originally published by RecordNet.Com on 9/22/2020 by reporter Bob Highfill
STOCKTON, Calif. — At long last, Stockton has a school named for a Filipino-American.
On Tuesday, Stockton Unified School District officials and the family of the late Flora Arca Mata took part in a physically distanced ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new kindergarten through eighth grade school named for Mata, the pioneering educator and pillar of her community.
Kathleen Garcia, Board President of Stockton USD Board of Education, starts the ceremony.
The scene was somewhat surreal as students were not on campus per the COVID-19 pandemic, but nevertheless significant for a city that once boasted the largest Filipino population outside of Manila.
Land Acknowledgement Ceremony by the Native American Indian Center
In fact, historic Little Manila in downtown Stockton provided the impetus for Mata’s parents to relocate from Hawaii, where she was born. They couldn’t have known their 2-year-old daughter at the time would overcome incredible odds in the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, when even a college education didn’t open doors to quality job prospects for minorities.
“Why is it that America would educate the minority and not give them an opportunity to use this education?” Mata reportedly said to a school dean who told her being an ethnic minority would make it impossible for her to be a teacher. “Why is it that they need a college education to be dishwashers?”
Mata did not let discrimination stop her. She received a teaching credential from the University of California, Los Angeles, as the first Filipina-American graduate from the university.
Tom Key (TETER Architect and Senior Construction Administrator) listens to speaker remarks.
Mata began her more than three decades teaching career in Stockton Unified School District shortly after World War II, and is believed to be the first Filipina-American school teacher in California.
Mata continued to serve the district as a substitute and volunteer teacher well after her retirement until she was 80 years old. She was a founding member of the Association of Filipino Americans in Education and a member of the Filipino American National Historic Society.
In December 2013, Mata passed away at age 95 and is survived by her son, Eddie Mata, and daughter, Vida Mata-Longley.
Mata’s grandson, Aaron Mata, is an educator and principal at Health Careers Academy in the Stockton Unified School District.
“I feel she was a very humble person. She would probably stand back a little bit,” said Mata, standing next to his wife, Patricia, vice principal at Rio Calaveras Elementary School in the Stockton Unified School District. “I think she would be very happy about pushing on education and making sure that students and teachers and everybody stayed dedicated to the future of our community.”
Mata family at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Flora Arca Mata ES, named after the first Filipina teacher in California and Stockton USD.
Students from Little Manila Rising advocated the $38.2 million school be named in honor of Flora Arca Mata, a former resident of historic Little Manila.
“If it wasn’t for COVID, there would be a lot of Filipinos in this room today,” Dillon Delvo, executive director and co-founder of Little Manila Rising, said during his remarks inside the school’s multipurpose room. “And a lot of food.”
At full capacity, the school can accommodate 540 students and currently has 420 enrolled students who are distance learning.
“This is going to be a great learning institution,” said Henry Phillips, principal of Flora Arca Mata Elementary School. “Our board of trustees has given us an excellent start by naming this site after an exemplary educator.”
Henry Phillips, Principal of Flora Arca Mata Elementary School, addresses attendees
Left to Right: Tom Key (TETER Architect & Sr. Construction Administrator), Henry Phillips (Flora Arca Mata ES Principal), and Aya Shitanishi (TETER Partner and Architect)
By reporter Bob Highfill at (209) 546-8277 or jhighfill@recordnet.com
New navigation center unveiled in Merced County
Navigation Homeless Shelter, a TETER project, is featured on KSEE 24 News.
Originally broadcast on KSEE 24 News on September 1, 2020 by Angelica Lei Lani
MERCED, Calif. (KSEE) — On Tuesday, in Merced County, a new navigation center was unveiled. The center will focus on helping house those who are homeless and provide them services.
The goal of this project is to give people who are homeless a safe temporary place to stay in modified shipping containers.
If you drive around the Valley you might see people who are homeless taking up residence along the freeway embankments, side streets, rivers, and parks. Homelessness has been an ongoing-growing issue.
“What we’d like to do is get these people out of those public spaces and get them on a track to getting their lives back together,” said Lloyd Pareira with the Merced County Board of Supervisors for District 4.
That place will soon be in Merced County, near B and 15th Streets, at a new low barrier temporary shelter made up of these modified shipping containers.
“Its purpose is to have a place where homeless people can go, in a congregate setting, fairly low barrier, and that way the county caseworkers and other nonprofits that are working with the homeless to try and help them get their lives back on track have a place to build a relationship with them,” Pareira said.
This project started about three years ago, several services are nearby from behavioral health to the public health department.
The funds are coming from the state with the help of Assemblymember Adam Gray, local and other grants.
“It’s $6.48 million which includes all the site work, purchasing the facility, and then having it installed and put together so it’ll be turn-key at the end of that time and then it will take about $1.7 million a year to operate it,” he said.
This facility is modeled after a low-barrier shelter in southern California’s Buena Park. It’ll be able to house up to 150 people, but because of COVID-19, they’ll have to start with about 66.
It will also provide veterinarian services for the pets of those staying here. Officials say they hope to have this opened by the end of this year.
Rest: What is it good for?
TETER Associate and Engineer Megan Chang’s Opinion is featured the the Zweig Letter.
Vallecito school district voters to weigh in on $2.8 million bond measure
TETER Project Makes Front Page News
New Architect
Steven Polanco Achieves Professional Architectural Licensure
Steven Polanco successfully passed the Architect Registration Exam (ARE) and the California Supplemental Examination (CSE). The California Architects Board has granted Steven the title of Licensed Professional Architect.
Steven, a graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, joined TETER fifteen years ago. He has grown from intern to Architect, and has garnered invaluable experience as both a Design Professional and Project Manager along the way.
Some of Steven’s most notable projects at TETER include the new Elementary School for Stockton Unified School District, City of Corcoran’s New Police Department Headquarters, and Family Healthcare Networks’s new Medical Office Building.
“Steve’s licensure was hard-earned and well-deserved. His measured approach to his work will not be compromised, and yields quality results. I’m so proud that our clients, our firm, and our profession will all continue to benefit from his expertise.”
– Aya Shitanishi, Partner / Architect
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