Since its founding in 1951, M-A has undergone numerous changes to accommodate new students and classes. Many teachers and staff members have been at M-A for decades and witnessed these changes. Here is what they have to say.
Physical Campus
Woodshop and architecture teacher Mark Leeper, who has been at M-A since 1987, teaches in the S-Wing. “None of this was here,” he said, referring to the science and culinary classrooms in the rest of the S-Wing viewable from his room. “I could see the sports fields.”
Before the Performing Arts Center was remodeled into an impressive theater, it served as a multi-purpose room. “They had plays and assemblies and all kinds of stuff like that,” Leeper said. The library used to be in B-14, which is now home to the guidance counselor’s office.
Many of these changes were made to decrease class sizes and support more niche classes. “You had more students and less space,” Leeper said. “Teachers had to share rooms more. There was not the space that there is now for people who have special programs.”
Diversity
In addition to the physical changes on campus, the school’s demographics have changed. “When I first got here, I was one of the only Asian teachers,” math teacher Bobby Wong, who has worked at M-A since 1997, said. “I could probably count on my hands how many Asian students there were.”
Asian American students now make up 8.5% of the student body. Wong added that the amount of Latino and white students has stayed about the same.
Culture
From dances to lunchtime events, M-A’s culture is seen in its motto: “Strength in Diversity.” But it wasn’t always this way. “When I first started, the school was very segregated,” Library assistant Roger Garcia said. “The Green was always known to be for privileged kids from Atherton. East Palo Alto was in front of the J-building. Redwood City was out in front of B-Wing.”
“Sports broke those barriers,” Garcia, who was an assistant football coach when he started working at M-A in 2000, said. “They were able to create a family environment where it didn’t matter who you were. Sports and clubs are a huge thing that creates diversity and strength here at M-A.”
While small changes happen over the course of students’ four years on campus, long-term teachers are able to see slower, larger changes to M-A.
