GILROY
– A new building will replace six portable classrooms at Rucker
Elementary School before the end of the school year, fulfilling
part of the district’s goal to get rid of aging and inadequate
portables.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – A new building will replace six portable classrooms at Rucker Elementary School before the end of the school year, fulfilling part of the district’s goal to get rid of aging and inadequate portables.
A new “modular” building – partially prefabricated but more permanent than a portable – will be erected at Rucker during the next four to five months. Preparations to the site at 325 Santa Clara Ave. have already begun.
“It’s going to be very exciting,” Principal Stephen Gilbert said. “We’ll have to work around it, but it’ll be great to get the new building. It will be exciting for the kids to see the process of the building.”
Modular building plans are predesigned by an architectural firm and approved by the Division of State Architects, which oversees all building design and construction for schools. Pieces of the building, including the metal frame and parts of the roof, will be prepared in a factory and brought to Rucker to be assembled. The district is responsible for preparing a permanent foundation for the building.
Gilroy Unified School District is saving time and money purchasing the modular building by avoiding the architectural bidding process and by “piggybacking” a contract that is several years old and provides construction at the cost.
“It does save us money, so it’s something we’re looking at when we don’t need to build a whole school,” said Charlie Van Meter, director of facilities and maintenance operations for GUSD.
Van Meter estimated GUSD saved $100,000 in architectural fees and $40,000 to $50,000 in construction costs.
The building will cost about $1.2 million.
The district must remove obsolete portables as part of an agreement with the state for funding to build Antonio Del Buono Elementary School. The state provided money for classroom space at Del Buono equaling the amount of aging portable space that GUSD offered to get rid of, totaling about 30 portables. Twelve portables have been removed so far, including Rucker’s 30-year-old portables.
At the earliest, the new building would be ready to house teachers and students by late winter or early spring, Van Meter said.
