District advances design work for CTE building and transportation center and studies elementary additions as less-costly alternative to a new school

District administrators on Monday gave the Board of School Trustees a progress update on “next decade” facilities planning that includes a Career and Technical Education (CTE) facility, a transportation center and a cost-comparison of elementary additions versus a new elementary school.

Design and sites

- CTE/alternative education facility: staff identified roughly 47 acres on the Barrett property near Carroll High School as the preferred site for the CTE/alternative school building. The site plan work is in the design phase; consultants are evaluating utilities, wetlands and circulation. District presenters said they will try to preserve open acreage west of the building for program uses such as construction labs, precision-agriculture drone areas and an on-site cross-country course sized to host high-school and middle-school events.

- Transportation center: staff are studying siting a transportation center on district land around Aspen Meadow; the aim is to create separate bus and parent flow to reduce afternoon and morning congestion at that elementary and to take advantage of a large parcel the district controls.

Staffing and operating requirements

District presenters emphasized that building a new CTE facility creates ongoing operating needs that the current budget cannot cover. Dr. Bidding said early program assumptions call for about 15 additional teachers to staff the facility’s program offerings plus instructional assistants, a guidance counselor, a work-based-learning coordinator and a director to align K–12 programming and community partnerships. "If you build a building and say we're gonna put 20 different programs in there, that could potentially run 300, 400, 500 students in that building," he said, adding that staffing and operating costs must accompany construction planning.

Elementary capacity options

As an alternative to constructing a ninth elementary school, district staff presented an initial feasibility study showing that additions and reconfigurations at existing elementary schools could add approximately 28 instructional classrooms across multiple campuses. Staff estimated the total construction cost of adding classroom capacity districtwide would be roughly $20 million less than constructing a new elementary school because additions reuse existing gyms, cafeterias, kitchens and administrative space. The board was shown conceptual plans for site-specific additions (examples: six classrooms at Arcola; four at Cedar Canyon; four at Eel River; two at Hickory Center; etc.) and a note that more detailed cost and constructability information will be presented at the next meeting.

Quotes and tradeoffs

Dr. Bidding: “When you look at that, as we visited these different buildings, there are also instructional assistant staffs that we're gonna have to support into those different areas. And then of course, it's its own separate entity.”

Superintendent Barker and operations staff stressed that operating funding for a CTE facility is dependent on the success of any operating referendum: “Without successfully passing the operating referendum, it would be my recommendation that we can no longer go forward with building this new CTE Alt Ed facility,” Barker told the board.

Next steps

Consultants and district staff said they will present more detailed cost estimates and construction drawings at the next meetings, with the district pursuing further geotechnical, civil and utility analysis in the short term. The board was told that the design teams (Moke Park, Barton-Covelima, ANZ civil engineering and primary engineering) are continuing schematic design and site feasibility work and that staff will return with more precise cost estimates and a recommended sequencing plan for any additions or new construction.