Thanks to cost savings reported on previous school bond projects throughout the district, one of Morgan Hill Unified School District’s elementary sites is getting a bigger modernization boost than originally expected.
Paradise Valley Elementary School, one of four district schools scheduled for new $5 million multi-purpose room (MUR), is getting $7.2 million in upgrades that still include a modified multi-use structure.
The project scope, unanimously approved by the board at the Oct. 4 school board meeting, has been expanded with plans for modernization of the existing administration and classroom pod into the multi-purpose facility; installation of new Gen7 modular classrooms to replace lost classrooms taken up by MUR; construction of a new administration building; and associated surrounding landscape/fencing.
The board previously approved the design contracts with McKim Design for the Master Planning of Nordstrom and Paradise Valley’s multi-purpose rooms in January 2015. “Since the Paradise Valley project was farther along in design, (the PV) project was accelerated,” according to district staff.
As of Aug. 31, $44.2 million (80 percent) of the Series A funds from the $198 million Measure G capital improvements bond has been expended. With the additions to the Paradise Valley Project, all Series A funds are now committed to future projects, district officials stated. Tax law requires that all bond proceeds be spent within five years of issuance.
The conversion of the existing pod—one of three on the 37-year-old LaCrosse Drive campus—that includes the administration offices, library and classrooms will take away classrooms. Those rooms will be replaced by the modular Gen7 buildings. The new MUR will have an indoor amphitheater-style or half-circle design, according to district plans.
Paradise Valley was transformed into an engineering focus academy for the 2016-17 school year. However, “the current project scope is not related to the engineerIng focus, (rather) it was developed in response to stakeholder outreach comments and cost/value analysis of the current buildings in relation to the Master Plan,” district staff explained. There is also no intent to add grade levels to the existing kindergarten through fifth grade configuration.
Site work is estimated to begin in April 2017 if not sooner once the district obtains design approvals from the Division of State Architects, according to district staff. Estimated completion dates are Aug. 2017 for the Gen7 classrooms; January 2018 for the multi-purpose room; and January 2018 for the new administration building.
The YMCA after-school program housed in portables on the west side of the campus will remain during the first phase of construction and later relocated to the front of the campus in concert with the parking/dropoff loop improvements, according to district staff.
Before the savings from earlier projects, construction on the multipurpose rooms was expected to start after the issuance of Series B bond proceeds. However, the additional Series A funds allowed for the acceleration of the Paradise Valley plans, according to district staff. Series B, the second of four series, is $50 million.
Other campuses getting MURs are Nordstrom Elementary Jackson Academy of Math and Music, and one completed at the Charter School of Morgan Hill.
The 2012 Measure G bond will burden homeowners about $59 a year for every $100,000 in assessed value of property. With the median home price at $673,000 in Morgan Hill, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, that could mean nearly $400 for the average household per year. Series A will be paid off in 2042, according to the district’s June 2014 Measure G report.
