Eliot School classroom should be ready by September
Gilroy – Heavy rains this winter and changes to the original design pushed the Eliot Elementary School expansion weeks behind schedule. But with summer here and overtime planned, the school should be ready for students come September, officials said. By prioritizing district-wide building projects, classrooms will be ready for students when the school opens Aug. 29.
Facilities upgrades and construction on several other campuses throughout Gilroy Unified School District should be completed by mid–August.
“It’s going to be tight – but we’ve always said that,” said Gary Corlett, Gilroy Unified School District’s construction manager. “We’ve intentionally left food services and the multipurpose room for last because we have alternate plans in place.”
Just two months ago Eliot resembled an abandoned gold mining town – empty wooden buildings, scattered wooden boards – dust blowing about.
Only 18 rain days were built into the schedule when groundbreaking began 13 months ago by Amoroso Construction, As rain dumped down across the south valley, there was concern construction at Eliot would not be finished in time for the start of the school year.
The new Eliot school, is the district’s first two–story school and is designed to accommodate 600 students at maximum capacity. Because expanding wasn’t an option – neighborhoods border the school – the design is that of urban planners: The five-acre campus was built up, instead of out.
Eliot students have been housed at Ascension Solorsano Middle School since construction began. The 2–year–old middle school is not filled to capacity because it does not have an eighth grade class until next fall.
The new 22-classroom campus has a separate kindergarten wing, a multipurpose room, a library/media center, administration offices and a kitchen. Each classroom will contain eight computers.
Construction is 90 percent complete, Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Steve Brinkman estimated.
The Eliot school project originally came in at $13.85 million, however, due to changes to the design and the overtime, the final pricetag should be $1.45 million over, Brinkman said.
Now, pink boards for the atrium top line the entranceway, and paint crews were out in force last week. The site has been transformed from a scene out of the old west, to that of an elementary school.
Step inside and immediately the temperature cools and sunlight dances across the freshly painted walls. The puddles once plaguing the site have dried, and lights lie in packaging on the floors.
“When we realized that we were just getting an extraordinary number of rain days we decided to prioritize,” Corlett said.
Priorities became classrooms, administrative offices, and multi–purpose room, Corlett rattled off: “We’re more concerned about getting students and staff in classrooms.”
Classroom furniture is scheduled to be hauled over from Solorsano Aug. 1, Corlett said. The following week additional classroom supplies should arrive. Teachers are on schedule to move in Aug. 15 to prepare their classrooms.
Without further delays or changes, the administration offices should be completed by the start date. Trades such as the painters, insulation crews, electricians, and the general contractor have worked overtime to keep the construction on pace, Corlett said.
While the administrative offices may be settled, the kitchen will not be ready until a few weeks after school begins, Brinkman said.
“We would prefer that it be ready. But if it isn’t we’ve got plan,” he said. Those plans include moving temporary picnic tables and transporting food from the district’s central kitchen.
All major projects at Eliot should be completed by Aug. 1. Afterwards just “punchlist” items remain, Corlett said. This means that once the general contractor is finished, a sweep of the site for quality and forgotten details will occur. Anything not completed or done so as the contract specified will be completed.
“The staff has been over several times,” Corlett said. “They’re real excited about moving in.”
Meanwhile, other GUSD projects in the works this summer are the completion of multi–purpose rooms at Glen View and El Roble Schools, as well as the addition of portable classrooms at Brownell Academy, Rod Kelley School and Rucker School.
Putting in portables is not just a big truck backing onto the site and unloading them. That’s just part of it.
Like all GUSD construction projects, placement of the portables requires DSA approval.
Site work must be done including a paving of the ground and electrical and technical wiring. Water and sewer elements are added at this stage if necessary.
The entire process requires about 45 to 60 days, Corlett said. Bidding went out Thursday.
“(The portables are) going to be real iffy, but we’ve got back up plans for them,” Brinkman said about the project that started late.
The district waited to see which sites needed them based on enrollment and in order to garner more funds from the state, Brinkman explained.
Multi-purpose rooms at El Roble and Glen View elementary schools will be finished Aug. 1 and July 18 respectively. Both projects went to Kent Construction of Gilroy and included the demolition of 14 portable classrooms.
Modernization of the GHS administrative offices, the football stadium and the aquatic center will be ready for the start of school, Brinkman assured. The football field will be ready for the Mustang’s first scrimmage Aug. 26.
The only major construction that will not be finished is the school’s student center. That project is expected to be completed next spring, Brinkman said.
The original price tag for all GHS projects excluding the football stadium construction was $20.33 million, Brinkman said. Overages have pushed the estimated price to $26 million. The cost of the field will be $1.8 million, about $100,000 more than originally expected. Much of the construction at GHS is a combination of the Measure I and J facilities bonds.
