School district leaders have put all their eggs in one basket for the nearly $50 million project to design, construct and furnish a brand new, state-of-the-art Britton Middle School.
With Morgan Hill Unified School District staff recommending the pair of Blach Construction Company and Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, the board of education unanimously approved the $39.5 million design-build contract at their June 6 meeting.
“(Blach and QKA) provided the most comprehensive and innovative proposal,” explained MHUSD Director of Construction Casino Fajardo, who described the plan as “very enticing” with an “aggressive schedule for the project.”
Phase 1, which includes two solar-ready, “Net Zero Energy” classroom buildings at the campus on Central Avenue on the north side of downtown Morgan Hill, will break ground January 2018 with an August 2018 target for completion. Blach-QKA already has Department of State Architecture design approval from previous school projects.
At Britton, this phase has two structures—a two-story classroom building design and a one-story science building design with attached outdoor science collaboration spaces that run along the Monterey Road side of the expansive campus. The classrooms will take up what is now a baseball field and lunch-commons area for students.
“It’s a very exciting time to be part of the Morgan Hill community,” said MHUSD Superintendent Steve Betando of the Britton project that is funded out the $198 million, voter-approved Measure G bond. “Thanks to Measure G funds, we have been able to make many upgrades to our campuses, but the much needed redevelopment of Britton is a project that the community has been looking forward to.”
The entire Phase 1 project will be financed through the second series of bonds (called Series “B”) of the Measure G fund. Series “A” released about $55 million—which is accounted for on various projects throughout the district—and Series “B” will disburse $60 million, of which $49.5 million will go toward the Britton project.
hed: Long time coming for new Britton campus
Britton was originally built in 1940 as a high school campus and was converted for middle school use in 1975. It sits on a 22-acre site in the heart of downtown Morgan Hill along Monterey Road and Hale Avenue between Central Avenue and Keystone Road. It currently has 28 regular classrooms with 69,000 square feet of buildings. The last modernization work was done in 1993. The school currently serves approximately 900 students.
The 22 new regular classrooms and six science labs will cover more than 78,000 square feet of the campus.
The design-build entity of Blach-QKA has done more than $2.5 billion of education work in designing and constructing more than 125 classroom projects in partnerships with 70-plus public education clients, including Cupertino High School and San Carlos School District, according to Fajardo’s presentation.
“I have no doubt that Blach and QKA will turn Britton into an environment where our middle schoolers will continue to flourish and that our community will embrace,” Betando continued.
The second phase, targeted for completion in August 2019, includes the construction of a custom administration building that will face Keystone rather than West Central Avenue, and a student union with library and kitchen that will occupy the corner of Monterey and Keystone in place of the existing decrepit tennis courts.
The final phase involves the demolition of the existing classroom buildings and old administration near West Central Avenue followed by a new parking lot once the new admin building and kitchen are completed.
The gymnasium and locker rooms off Keystone and the auditorium on the corner of Central and Monterey will remain as part of the campus.
“It is not set in concrete,” said Betando of the final design plan for the Britton campus. “We’re still going to go through a process.”
The Net Zero Energy buildings proposed by Blach-QKA mean that the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site. The buildings have the potential to be the “Greenest” K-12 project in Northern California, according to Fajardo.
Fajardo explained that Blach-QKA was awarded the contract on the basis of schedule, sustainability, scope of work and commitment to budget. District staff received pre-qualification submissions March 22; carried out reference checks, research and review of submission criteria through April 10; received formal proposals May 5; conducted two rounds of interviews May 8 and May 24; and made their final determination of best value May 31.
“We understand how important redeveloping Britton Middle School is for Morgan Hill at-large. And everyone on our team, several of whom reside in Morgan Hill, is excited to be a part of it,” said Dan Rogers, executive vice president for Blach. “Together with QKA, we are committed to maximizing the investment MHUSD is making and working with them to quickly deliver a flexible, high quality learning environment that the city is proud of for years to come.”
While the design-build contract is $39.5 million, the other $10 million in expenses includes a gamut of costs from furnishing the classrooms, administration office and student union to paying for DSA permits, inspections and water and sewer connection fees.
