Friday, November 8, 2002, Antelope Valley Press By DEBRA LEMOINE Valley Press Staff Writer LANCASTER – Jack Northrop was considered a man ahead of his time who adapted to situations before they happened. And that is what Principal Karen Stults said she was doing—adapting to the situation and preferring not to relive history—when she conducted an indoor groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the construction of the permanent campus of Jack Northrop Elementary School on Avenue K-4 in Lancaster. On Nov. 11, 1997, Stults had invited the same dignitaries to come out to then New Vista Elementary School for the renaming ceremony to Jack Northrop Elementary. Back then, the entire K-5 student body, Northrop family, state and local politicians, and other valley dignitaries stood with her in the pouring rain with B-2 bombers flying overhead as the ceremony took place. "I’m sorry about that. But I did better this time," she said. When the clouds burst open Thursday morning, she took a child’s swimming pool, filled it with dirt and placed it on the stage in the school cafeteria. Then she invited everyone on stage to stick their golden shovels in a brown paper-covered wading pool to move dirt into an orange wheel barrow. "It took us four guys to figure out how to get it through the door," she joked. Despite the unusual setting, the message was clear—the students are going to finally receive their permanent school. Jack Northrop has been a one-of-a-kind community, and Jack Northrop was a one-of-a-kind man," said Superintendent Steve Gocke of the Lancaster School District." There will be no other school in the world with the name Jack Northrop or the concept of aerospace in the future." SCHOOL BUILDING Jack Northrop Elementary School Principal Karen Stults holds a photo donated to the school by Northrop Grumman during Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Lancaster school’s permanent site. Shown presenting the photo is Northrop Grumman’s B-2 deputy program Site Manager Ramon P. Dasal. The company serves as a corporate partner with the school. EVELYN KRISTO, Valley Press The 61,329-square-foot campus will be shaped like a B-2 bomber in honor of its namesake and to reflect the Valley’s emphasis on the aerospace industry, said Ramon Dasal, spokesman got Northrop Grumman Corp., the school’s partner in education. Jack Northrop, who brought his company’s operations to Palmdale’s Air Force Plant 42 in the 1950s, earlier conceived the YB-49 Flying Wing. The flying wing concept, although far ahead of its time, survived to evolve into Northrop Grumman’s revolutionary B-2 stealth bomber. Dasal presented the school with a picture of Northrop with a YB-49 that used to hang in the lobby at Northrop Grumman. "Jack Northrop cared about more than airplanes," Dasal said. "He dreamed about making the community a better place to live." The campus will include a 5,550-square-foot multipurpose room, a 930-square-foot computer lab, 1,384 square feet of library space and administrative facilities, and 32,980 square feet of classroom space. The school will house 800 students and open within a year.