The very bottom of the 500s building is one of the most mysterious places at Monte Vista. Few even know that there are classes there, and fewer know about what has happened in those classes. The room most people know about is the 500 class, yet looking closer would draw to sight a small hallway. Entering this small, dormant hallway, all that’s inside is a janitor’s closet and a mysterious 505 classroom.
The 505 classroom is currently vacant, yet it used to hold a culinary class. This class has had a turbulent history. Monte Vista had a culinary class for many years until about 10 years ago, when it was shut down, as there was no longer a teacher able to teach it. The class was spontaneously reopened in 2023, with Tracey Naritomi, a teacher who at the same time taught at San Ramon Valley, being able to teach the Monte Vista culinary class for seventh period exclusively. The class was soon canceled, though, likely due to a combination of the challenges and scheduling conflicts brought about by teaching at two different schools on the same day, and of the high costs related to the class not being supported by the school budget.
“It’s a bummer,” said Mrs. Mieras, who teaches biology in room 500 next door, when asked about the culinary class being shut down. “[It’s] a really nice classroom that’s very well equipped and capable of having a really fun class… Culinary is a class that teaches you life skills.”
Entering the doors to Mieras’s class, you will see what at first glance seems to be a normal biology classroom. The only thing out of the ordinary is that there are two curiously creepy doors in the back, leading to small rooms numbered 502 and 503. One of these is used for storing lab equipment like goggles and beakers, while the other, which remains closed, is labeled as the cold storage room. This room seems normal, yet it has a haunting past few know about.
Mieras teaches in a solitary classroom in a corner of the campus where only the engineering classrooms are nearby. She enjoys some of the benefits that come along with being alone.
“It’s a really nice classroom with lots of natural light, and it’s relatively quiet,” Mieras said. There are a few problems, though. “I’m far away from my colleagues… so I miss out on the quick conversations that you could have with people or eating lunch with people, things like that.”
Her room is dubbed ‘the new morgue’. This is due to the fact that the cold storage room was originally built for an old anatomy class. It was first designed by a former staff member named Patty Corothers and was allegedly intended to store cadavers, preserved full human remains, for dissection. Unfortunately for the designers, yet quite fortunately for some of the students, cadavers are not permitted on high school campuses, which meant the anatomy class had to settle for the remains of other animals, like cats. When the anatomy class was eventu
ally discontinued, becoming the current Honors Anatomy and Physiology (HAPS) course, the morgue was left with no use. Today, specimens such as sheep and pig brains, eyeballs, and more preserved body parts remain inside, untouched since 2019, and since becoming biohazardous.
