A consulting team presented a draft long‑range facilities plan to the Riverside Unified School District board on July 24 that combines campus by campus analysis, community input and districtwide cost estimates.

LPA Architects said the planning process included site visits, principal and departmental interviews, and more than 2,600 participants across student and community surveys; the presenters said the student survey recorded over 800 responses and the community survey more than 1,600 responses. The firm described four planning pillars that guided prioritization: leverage funding (including state funding eligibility), replace portable classrooms with permanent construction, renew aging infrastructure and pursue campus equity (for TK/K facilities, elective spaces and shared amenities).

Presenters showed campus diagrams that map needs—new construction, heavy and light modernizations and site improvements—and said costs were estimated in 2025 dollars; staff emphasized these are draft figures and that escalation will be applied when projects are packaged into construction timelines. Andrea Pippen, an educational facilities planner on the LPA team, said the cost estimate is structured so the district can extract line‑items (for example, furniture or HVAC) for districtwide or targeted investments.

Board members asked for more contextual research tying facility investments to student outcomes and for a clearer summary of funding pathways. Multiple trustees said the public needs realistic expectations about the size of the program and the trade‑offs between building new schools and modernizing existing campuses. Public commenters at the meeting questioned whether the district should place new schools ahead of modernization work and noted community skepticism following earlier bond‑funding cycles.

Why this matters: the long‑range facilities plan will guide capital priorities—modernization, new classrooms for TK/K, athletic and career technical facilities—and underpins any future bond or state grant strategy. The draft identifies districtwide needs and gives leaders a framework for prioritizing projects.

Board next steps: trustees asked staff to provide a readable, printed packet and scheduled a study session on Sept. 4 to review data, weighting of the four pillars and funding strategies before any bond decisions are pursued. Presenters said totals shown in the draft are in 2025 dollars and will be escalated when projects are scheduled.

Ending: staff and consultants will refine the draft, include the board’s requested analysis linking facility types to educational impact, and return for a public study session in early September.