Woodland Park Elementary groundbreaking set; board seeks earlier input on phase 2 designs

District staff told the Capital Outlay Committee on July 15 that the slab for the Woodland Park Elementary School project was poured recently and that a groundbreaking is scheduled for the week of July 20. Monica, a consultant with GGB, attended the meeting to answer questions about the project. Staff said the current design includes a flexible media/library space with an accordion wall so the room can be used as a larger media area or subdivided for classroom use; the project was described as a six-classroom addition with a library and teacher work room. The project originally began with a budget in the roughly $4.3 million range and, when bids opened, the apparent lowest bid came in near $2.8 million, according to staff remarks at the meeting. Board members asked when they would see renderings and drawings; staff said the board will see programming and 10% drawings before the architect proceeds beyond programming. Several board members requested that local advisory committees and board representatives be involved earlier in the programming and design stages for phase 2 projects, noting that earlier phases included campus committees of staff, parents and board delegates. Separately, staff said the Champ Cooper/LaRonde project is on hold pending a decision by DOTD on a turn-lane project; staff reported they are "99%" confident DOTD will fund the turn lane but said the architect cannot proceed with design until the DOTD decision is finalized. No formal votes were taken on Woodland Park or phase 2 processes at the meeting; the committee asked staff to return with programming materials and to include board members in future site-level discussions.