There will be a brand new Britton Middle School campus by the fall of 2018, as the school district’s Board of Education approved an initial $750,000 allocation of bond money for architectural design fees for the project.
The seven-member Morgan Hill Unified School District Board previously tabled their decision in March to allow for more community input on the two options of constructing a new Britton campus or remodeling existing facilities.
Two community forums held at Britton brought only a handful of residents. Board President Don Moody acknowledged that he was “disappointed at the turnout” for those meetings, one in the evening of April 16 and another in the morning of May 1. But he said he is confident in making the decision to opt for brand new campus facilities.
Helping the Board opt for a new campus option, which district staff estimate will cost about $30 million in bond funds, was an online community survey. An “overwhelming” 86 percent of the 160 residents who responded to the survey supported building a new campus.
“The district did as much as they could to solicit input from the community,” Trustee Rick Badillo said.
Superintendent Steve Betando noted that the district received feedback from staff at Britton and the feeder elementary schools.
Betando also mentioned that district staff received feedback from city officials and local law enforcement.
At the June 10 meeting, Director of Facilities Anessa Espinosa outlined how the new construction will be funded from a portion of the $198 million Measure G capital improvements bond approved by voters in November 2012. The modernization/remodeling option was estimated to cost close to $25 million, according to a site inspection conducted by San Jose-based Cumming.
The first $750,000 will go to the initial design development, according to staff. As part of that, staff will form a committee to provide input on the campus site plan, initial design of the administration office and classroom spaces, and ensuring the exterior and traffic flow conforms to the City of Morgan Hill’s Downtown Master Plan.
Residents and students won’t see any construction at the site until at least the end of 2015. The timeline for the project showed three months for the planning process, seven to nine months for design and construction documents, six to eight months for Department of the State Architect approval, two to three months for bid and project awards and 18 months to two years for construction.
Built in 1940 as Live Oak Union High School, a four -year secondary facility for ninth through 12th grade students, Britton was home to 640 seventh and eighth graders during the 2013-14 school year.
The middle school campus, consisting of several detached classroom buildings with covered walkways, an auditorium and a gymnasium, sits on a more than 20-acre lot between Monterey Road and Hale Avenue. Adult Education takes up buildings in the rear that were previously used for ninth graders who were at Britton beginning in 1979 due to overcrowding at Live Oak High School, which was built in 1975. Ninth graders moved back into the high schools when Ann Sobrato High School opened in 2004.
District staff noted at the June 10 meeting that it’s time replace the school’s aging facilities with a 21st-century learning environment in order to meet the needs of current and future students. The project will equip the campus with modern facilities, and offer an opportunity to make Britton the district’s flagship school within downtown Morgan Hill.
