District design team presents schematic design, $117M preliminary estimate for San Antonio campus

San Antonio — The Los Altos School District design-build team presented schematic drawings and a preliminary budget for the new San Antonio TK–8 campus on the site the district bought in 2019, emphasizing flexible classroom blocks, outdoor learning courtyards and joint-use athletic fields.

Nick Stephenson, principal with Koch Architects, told the board the preferred scheme uses “three two‑story folia buildings” to provide two classrooms per grade from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade and additional flex and special‑education rooms to serve about 600 students.

The team described a cluster of L‑shaped buildings that create a series of semi‑private courtyards for TK/kindergarten play areas, outdoor learning spaces and covered outdoor eating adjacent to a multi‑purpose room (MPR). Aaron Jobson, a member of the design team, said the layout was chosen to balance supervised play, outdoor learning and joint public access to the fields.

Amber from Block Construction presented a preliminary cost update and schedule. She said the project team estimates roughly $117 million total at this schematic stage, which the team described as approximately $109 million in hard construction costs plus about $8 million in design and soft costs and includes two years of escalation if construction begins in May 2026. Amber said the team will perform site investigations in October to firm up site‑work costs and soil remediation needs.

The team described a three‑increment delivery strategy for approvals and construction: increment 1 would be site utilities and building pads to secure the current code cycle; increment 2 would be the repetitive two‑story classroom folia buildings; increment 3 would include the custom buildings — the MPR, gymnasium and a field‑support building. Amber said the approach is intended to stagger DSA review and enable early site work to begin while design development continues.

Board members asked about bathroom distribution on second floors, the potential cost of bridges between buildings, seating capacity for the outdoor eating area and whether the gym/fieldhouse elements are part of the joint‑use commitment. The design team said student restroom placement is still being refined, that bridges increase cost but add circulation flexibility, and that the outdoor eating area capacity will be calculated and reported back to the board.

A community member, Carolyn Miller, spoke during public comment about safety concerns at the site’s busy corner and asked for visual and security screening near the street. The team said the buildings will form much of the campus perimeter where feasible and that landscape screening will be studied in the next design phase.

Next steps the team listed include further fine‑tuning in design development, more detailed cost estimating after the October site investigations, coordination with utilities and adjacent property owners, and returning the schematic package for possible approval at a future board meeting. The architects and construction manager asked for board feedback on exterior materials, courtyard arrangements and program adjacencies before design development.

No formal action on schematic design or budget was taken at the meeting. The board directed staff and the design‑build team to refine estimates, complete site investigations and return with updated cost and design information at a future meeting.