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Schools face huge facilities costs

 

A nearly year-long facilities master plan review, covering the next 25 years for the Sonoma Valley Unified School District, shows a number of deficiencies that need to be corrected.

The review, done by Quattrocchi Kwok Architects from Santa Rosa, looked at every school in the district except Sonoma Valley High School, and that's on the agenda later this year once the school is up and running. The study included four meetings at each of the sites with administrators, staff and parents.

After an almost three-hour special school board meeting Monday, Deputy Superintendent Justin Frese noted that every school has issues with student drop-off sites, and every school has multipurpose room issues.

And, the district is reaching the end of the useful life at a number of the portable classrooms it has. In one instance, at the Sonoma Charter School, the portables have already surpassed their useful lifespan.

After listening to a list of highlights for every campus, the board also received a breakdown on what some of the costs would be.

The improvements were broken up into four categories - mandatory improvements, green technology improvements, necessary improvements and desired improvements.

The mandatory improvement cost was estimated at a little more than $12.5 million; the green technology improvements were estimated at $9.7 million; the necessary improvements were estimated at $22.3 million and the desired improvements were estimated at $65.7 million for a total of $110.3 million.

"This is a 25-year look at the district's needs," said Steve Kwok, a member of the QKA team that did the study. "This is just the first version," he said. "As needs and priorities change, this document will also change."

The study was done to prioritize needs and look at costs. The presentation identified major deficiencies at each school and recommendations on how to fix them.

Along with the needs of each campus was a proposed design on how the changes would alter each campus. But Kwok said these too were just preliminary drawings and would change as the process moved forward.

The board was going to look at proposed projects at Monday's meeting, but the matter was put on hold to let the school board take a second look through the study.

The projects could surface as an action item at Tuesday's regular school board meeting.

Among the items the board will be looking at as part of the 2011-12 project list are:

• Classroom technology updates.

• Classroom furniture updates.

• Window blind replacements.

• Classroom updates at SVHS.

• Altimira courtyard renovation under the solar structure.

• Resurfacing playgrounds and replacing the sewer line at Dunbar.

• Replacing portable classroom ramps and reconfiguring the track at El Verano.

• Renovating the student drop-off space at Flowery.

• Modernizing restrooms and parking at Prestwood.

• Upgrading exterior lighting at Sassarini.

• Replacing administration and classroom buildings at Sonoma Charter School.

• Repairing administration and performance buildings and re-configuring special education at Woodland Star.

• Making potential structural upgrades if needed.

Frese told the board that some of the proposed projects for the coming year wouldn't be projects covered by the Measure H bond. But some of the projects - $7.2 million worth - may be covered under a state bond if there is funding left from a previous school facilities bond.