DIXON, CA (MPG) - It may be another year and thousands of dollars more, but the Dixon High School Barn will be built better.

After the School Board Meeting where Ag teacher Marcus Tanaka expressed his frustrations with the delays in the Dixon High School barn and not being included in its development, Superintendent Brian Dolan arranged a meeting with several officials including facility consultants from School Site Solutions, an architect, a State official, Principal Stephanie Marquez, and all the Dixon High School Ag teachers.

Dolan returned press calls after last week’s press deadline and offered explanations and comments.

“There was some collaboration with our Facilities Director John Calise and the Ag teachers but it was years ago. There was an Ag/community-wide [effort] but not so much on the design. Mr. Girimonte was principal at the time, and I wasn’t directly involved and was not present for that work myself,” he said. “What I can say is that communication is always the biggest challenge especially with a 2.2 to 3-million dollar project. We don’t have a Facilities Director right now. We could be doing a better job.”

Tanaka, who has been an Ag teacher for more than ten years at the high school and who built the Woodland school barn while teaching there, had reported numerous failures in the construction of the DHS barn contributing to further delays and was upset that he had not been communicated with by Dolan nor included in the barn’s development.

“Engineers have different opinions of what Mr. Tanaka would have,” Dolan said empathetically. “We are building within this bureaucracy. There are layers. There were things that went real easy and things that were real problems. Nothing goes perfectly but we have a chance to work together. Let’s get this thing finished.”

At the meeting held later at the barn itself, the developers spoke to Tanaka nearly the whole time.

“They asked a lot of good questions and I asked them questions,” he said. “I pointed out things like security, visibility, and the way the fencing [is a problem] and they agreed it will have to be a strong consideration for the security of the project. We’re very hopeful with my involvement and said they want to make this facility the way [the Ag teachers] see it.”

Tanaka was especially pleased that Mr. Dolan had acted quickly to invite everyone to the table to address the issues.

“What is more alarming is what more things need to be undone. It’s going to be an estimated $160,000-180,000 just to finish the bathroom because it has to be ADA compliant but they are still trying to confirm if they can have one restroom open to all genders or another one for staff access only. Then, that determines if there’s an extra wall and more plumbing needed,” he explained.

Overall, the consultants and leaders involved were hopeful the project would be completed by next fall according to their timeline, but Tanaka is cautious about that.

“In reality, there is too much red tape in between all these projects for people to think that it’s simple,” he said, but he is happy to be included. “They have my contact information and it sounds like I’m going to be involved in the remainder of the project (Phase 2.)”

In a different conversation, Dolan was adamant that the future vision of the Ag department teaching staff would remain three teachers and that they are in the process of recruiting the third (after the recent departure of Miranda Will.)

“We have a student teacher from UC Davis and that gentleman will be taking on Ms. Will’s assignment for the rest of the year,” Dolan said. “We will advertise for someone to be in a permanent position for the beginning of next year and beyond. He will be eligible to apply,” he added. This was all good news for Mr. Tanaka who was glad he spoke up at the School Board Meeting.

“My heart was leading the direction more than the agenda item was addressing,” he said. “But since, I’ve had a lot of people reaching out to me and people in influential positions asking, ‘what do I need?’”