Thanks to a facilities bond voters passed in November, the
school district has an extra $150 million on its books
– now it just needs to figure out which school will move to the
top of its class.
Thanks to a facilities bond voters passed in November, the school district has an extra $150 million on its books – now it just needs to figure out which school will move to the top of its class.
Gilroy Unified School District staff have already identified some projects that will benefit from the bond money. These projects include facelifts for some schools and increased capacity at other schools. However, a recent squabble between the school board and staff over prices highlighted the lack of a plan and spurred trustees to begin the process of creating one, trustees said.
Plans for a new wing at Las Animas Elementary School – one of the district’s newest schools – are well underway. The school is bursting at the seams and administrators estimated they will need five to seven classrooms in the next two years to accommodate the school’s burgeoning population. In January, trustees told district administrators to move forward with a $3 million, two-story wing of seven classrooms and one bathroom.
But the project hit a speed bump in June when district staff came back with a design that tacked an extra 2,400 square feet and $700,000 on the project for an eighth classroom.
“The additional space is greatly needed in the Las Animas attendance area due to increases in enrollment and demand for the Dual Immersion program” – a language program that immerses students in English and Spanish curricula – according to a staff report.
But the amended price and design left trustees shaking their heads.
“This is not what we approved,” said trustee Denise Apuzzo. “This is not what we wanted. We’re not getting any bang for the buck with this.”
Trustee Mark Good called the new wing a “perfect example of a project run amok.”
Frustrated that staff significantly amended the project without consulting them first, trustees put the project on hold pending more information.
Although Superintendent Deborah Flores said adding the eighth classroom “seemed like a really good idea at the time” and trustee Francisco Dominguez attributed the misunderstanding to “enthusiasm on the district’s part,” Good pointed to the disagreement as an example of why the district needs to update its facilities master plan.
“If we keep running willy nilly, we’re going to be standing on the street corner with our pants pockets turned inside out,” he said. “The buck stops with the board.”
Acting as a road map for the district’s capital projects, a facilities master plan should take an inventory of the district’s current facilities, list the projects needed in the coming years and address how the district will build those facilities, Good said. The current plan is a “historical document,” not a road map for the future, he said.
During the discussion, trustee Rhoda Bress brought up a point that prompted many trustees to nod their heads in agreement.
“We are making the decisions backward,” she said. “How many classrooms do we need there, now?”
Trustees said they were concerned with the inflated price tag of the new wing not only because they didn’t approve it, but also because it would take money away from some of the district’s oldest facilities, such as Rucker and Rod Kelley elementary schools.
Rucker is “completely out of space,” Flores said.
As the oldest elementary campus in the district, the school is plagued with traffic problems and dilapidated facilities. The first series of Measure P money will launch a modernization initiative at Rucker, Flores said.
Rod Kelley is next in line, she said. As the largest elementary school in the district with nearly 800 students, Rod Kelley needs a cafeteria and extra classrooms so teachers don’t have to hold their lessons in the library, Flores said.
Trustees are also debating the question of how big is too big at the elementary school level. Adding a two-story wing of classrooms similar to the one at Las Animas is a viable option for several elementary schools like Rucker, Rod Kelley and Glen View, Flores said. Data collected by district staff showed that the relationship between size and academic performance, as measured by a state exam score, is negligible.
“It’s really what happens inside the building that counts,” Flores said, adding that elementary schools all over the state accommodate more than 800 students.
“We have a long list of projects and we will work our way through all of them but it will happen over time,” she said. “We hope to get the ones that are most needed done as quickly as possible.”
For now, the facilities master plan is a big piece of the puzzle, Good said.
Trustees plan to revisit the Las Animas plan July 22 and further debate the elementary population growth issue Aug. 20.
