The newly opened, state of the art Dougherty Valley High School opened this past Monday. Located in Windemere, the newest addition to the San Ramon Valley Unified School District begins with just freshmen and sophomores, and the first graduating class will be in 2010.

The $130 million dollar project was paid for by Shappell and Windemere BLC Developers as an incentive in order to be allowed to build 5000 new homes in the area. Featuring wider hallways, easily accessible classrooms, larger lockers and a boatload of new technology, prospective students helped come up with the high school’s design.

Dougherty Valley High School is also employing a new kind of security system in which teachers can use Columbine security locks if they spot intruders on surveillance.

The city of San Ramon used $9 million to share part of the costs in building the school’s Olympic sized pool and a performing arts center that can seat up to 600 people.

- Joseph Natividad