Students at Mendocino High School and members of the local community are working together to transform a bleak area of the high school campus into a student commons. The project began in 1998 and will be completed in 2002. A planning committee composed of students, administrators, teachers, and a local architect and designer spent two years designing the area, setting a construction schedule, and drafting a marketing and fundraising strategy. Students in grades 9 through 12 are involved in all aspects of the Commons Project. The last time the commons area was modified was in 1968, when students made and arranged planters to beautify the area. This time students, teachers, administrators, and community volunteers have taken on a far more ambitious task--to completely redesign, reconstruct, and landscape the area.