Dobson buzzes with excitement over Obama

Outside the doors of Mesa's Dobson High School, crews were working to finish landscaping work in preparation for President Barack Obama's visit Wednesday.

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Inside the halls, all the buzz was "craziness" according to students who scored tickets to the president's first visit to Arizona since his election in November.

Minda Elliott, 18, and Amanda Levy, 16, will be on hand to hear Obama when he comes to school. Elliott, senior class president, camped out Sunday night to get a ticket on Monday. Levy, a member of the school's speech and debate team, received a ticket from principal Matt Gehrman, who was given a few to distribute.

"I think everyone is really excited because Mesa is the quiet city and nothing ever happens and all, and now the school is going to be where the president is going to give one of his great speeches," Elliott said. "I hope it shines a light on Arizona."

Obama is planning to deliver his plan for helping families facing foreclosures. Arizona was selected as the site for the speech - and Mesa in particular - because of the growing number of people losing their homes.

"I hope he tells us why he's doing what he's doing and what affect it will have - the impact," Levy said.

Zach Nelson, 16, also camped out for a ticket. He hopes to record the speech as part of a radio presentation. He is in Dobson's journalism program. On Tuesday, he walked around campus with fellow student Tory Cole, 17, recording interviews with school and district staff about the president's arrival.

"This is a big event so it's perfect if we want to cover something," Nelson said. "It's been hectic. We've had some trouble trying to interview the principal."

Gehrman was indeed busy Tuesday, shuffling between meetings with staff about Wednesday's logistics and fielding calls from White House staff and security.

Some of the grounds crews on campus Tuesday were watering the new sod put down over the weekend. The district had crews working on the landscaping as well as painting and working with White House staff on needed electric plugs and circuit breakers.

Dobson's facilities manager, Martin Reyes, who lives in the Dobson Ranch community and has worked on the campus for the past nine years, was busy overseeing dozens of staff members Tuesday.

"It's been exciting for me," Reyes said. "Sunday morning I really knew it was happening because I got the call from work. From then on it was total chaos."

The district already planned to update the landscaping at the school, said associate superintendent Mike Cowan. This just put a jump on those plans.

"Any enhancements we've done to the facilities to prepare them for national exposure of our campus have been things we've had in the works for doing or were anticipating doing in the near future. So all we did was accelerate that timeline," Cowan said.

Any setup needed specifically for the president's speech - from staging to lighting to telecommunication lines - has been planned and undertaken by White House staff and are not expenditures for the district, Cowan said.

The gymnasium, where the president will speak, was mostly off limits to staff and students Tuesday, though Levy said she got to take a peek with her dance class.

"The gym looks really nice the way it's all set up. It doesn't look like a gym," Levy said.

Elliott added that over the summer the gymnasium had new flooring put down, as well as updated bleachers and a sound system installed.

"It's nice he's stopping by when we just spruced it up," Elliott said.

Students and staff at Dobson High who do not have tickets to the event have been told to park off campus, said Kathy Bareiss, spokeswoman for the Mesa Unified School District, to allow those with tickets to park at the school.

"We're trying to free up ... parking at Dobson campus," she said. "We're trying to make arrangements with bigger parking lots in businesses. We've hired shuttle buses for Dobson students and staff to the school."

One area business, the Safeway grocery store at Alma School and Guadalupe roads, confirmed it had heard from the district.

"We do know the school had contacted us to tell us the students would not be parking on campus, and we are currently trying to come up with a plan so our customers have a place to shop and park," said Cathy Kloos, director of public affairs for Safeway, which has a location near the Dobson campus. "It's still a work in progress."

During Wednesday's event, students will watch the presentation on televisions in their classrooms, Bareiss said.