School officials got their Halloween treat one day after the fall holiday when Morgan Hill Unified School District’s board of education unanimously approved a $50 million project to construct a brand new Britton Middle School.
However, there were some scary moments before they got the final answer they were seeking from the seven-member board at the Nov. 1 meeting.
Two trustees on the often split school board voiced their concerns with the hefty price tag that included the project’s signature student center/library/kitchen structure at the corner of Monterey and Keystone Road, as well as a new administration office to go along with three new classroom clusters.
District staff reviewed four options for the Phase 1 construction, each one varying in price and scope from just over $33 million to nearly $50 million. They recommended going for the whole shebang, which was a plan developed and expanded through scores of site staff and community input dating back nearly two years. But ultimately school leaders needed board approval to move forward with any of the four options.
Trustees Rick Badillo—who was a trustee on the board back in 2014 when the previous board voted in favor of building anew rather than renovating the old buildings on the Britton campus—and David Gerard initially suggested going with a scaled back version for the Phase 1 construction.
“It’s concerning that we started at $25 million for a remodel and said could go up to $30 million for new construction and we went that route (in 2014). Now, here we are looking at $49 million,” said Badillo, who leaned toward the least expensive option that excluded the extra $20 million for the student union/library and new admin building. “I don’t know if we are using our taxpayers’ dollars wisely….I think that’s excessive.”
The Britton project also calls for the demolition of the existing administration building, two old classroom wing buildings and the current kitchen building.
The Britton gymnasium and auditorium will remain as part of the new campus.
Gerard said while he was “excited about the plan overall,” he was concerned with the high cost since it would eat up nearly all of the Measure G bond money for the second series of issuances and possibly take away from plans for other school sites. He also wanted the district to wait for the master facilities plan to be finalized before jumping the gun on such a massive project.
The entire Phase 1 project will be financed through the second series of bonds (Series B) of the Measure G fund. Series A released about $55 million—which is all accounted for on various projects throughout the district—and Series B will disburse $60 million, five-sixths of which will go toward the Britton project.
“We’re not a rich community and it’s not free money at the end of the day,” Gerard said. “The student union and new administration building comes at a cost as much as a new elementary school. I suggest we say ‘yes’ to Option ‘D’ tonight.”
An hour-long discussion ensued with full support for staff’s recommendation coming from Trustees Donna Ruebush and Ron Woolf, who was on the board along with Badillo and Bob Benevento on the initial Britton vote. Before that, Woolf was also part of the district’s steering committee that helped get the $198 million Measure G capital improvements bond passed by voters in November 2012.
“One of the chief priorities (of the bond committee) was Britton School,” Woolf said. “I can’t help convince myself that was the reason why most of the voters voted for that Measure G.”
Britton project long overdue
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 avenues 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 and it currently serves approximately 900 students in grades sixth through eighth.
Phase 1 construction is scheduled to begin in Summer 2017 and estimated for completion in Summer 2019. Casino Fajardo, MHUSD’s Director of Construction and Modernization, explained that any delay in the start could increase construction costs by up to 15 percent.
“I’m in favor of Option ‘A’ for several different reasons,” said Ruebusch, who stressed the community and school site staff input that drove the district’s expansive plans. Ruebusch is a retired teacher from Live Oak High School and she drew on that history as well.
“With Live Oak, the first phase was the base model and then the second phase never came,” she explained.
As for the Britton project, after completion of the first phase, district officials have Phase II plans for an additional $6 to $8 million that includes an expansion of the parking lot on Central Avenue to include a parent dropoff area, a bus-only dropoff area, 6-foot high architectural fencing along the perimeter, some landscape work and a canopy. That phase is scheduled through 2020.
Phase 3 of the Britton project, coming in between $24.8 and $27.9 million with an undetermined timeline, would incorporate modernization work on the remaining old buildings, gymnasium and locker rooms. Phase 4, priced between $9 and $13 million, includes new architectural gateway and signage elements, new campus walkway with historical signage in partnership with the City of Morgan Hill.
The board only approved Phase 1 at the Nov. 1 meeting.
