Board reviews Mark Hook renovation and plan to relocate central office to former Kindercare building

Goshen Board members reviewed design drawings and a project timeline for renovations to Mark Hook Elementary and for converting the former Kindercare building into a modern administrative office.

Architect/designer Mark Cook walked the board through plans for Mark Hook’s media center — described as a flexible hub with movable furniture, ADA‑compliant restrooms, five intervention rooms and adjacent flexible classrooms — and said the new layout will create more appropriate elementary‑age spaces than the current arrangement of classrooms and bookshelves.

On the administrative office conversion, board members and designers reviewed plans to create a secured vestibule and reception area, multiple work offices (including spaces sized for superintendent and treasurer meetings), a small and a large conference room, four restrooms, a multipurpose room of roughly 800 square feet and hoteling/hybrid office space for itinerant staff. Designers said windows will be added where appropriate and that mechanical, electric and plumbing systems are under review.

"Circulation will go through it, and that will connect to other zones, but it will also give the ability for the media center to flex," Mark Cook said while describing the Mark Hook layout. The design team highlighted an under‑floor HVAC system in the former kindergarten building that will require additional engineering work and potentially added cooling capacity.

Project schedule and procurement steps were presented in sequence: the team expects to reach roughly 60% design by late September, provide a complete package to estimators, and return in October/early November to request authorization to publicly bid the two jobs as separate contracts (one for the administrative office, which the team said it wants completed first). The team estimated moving administrative staff into the renovated Kindercare building by about April 1, with construction fully wrapped the following summer.

Board members asked for clarifications about room counts, whether board meetings would move to the new site, and contingency plans for HVAC and other mechanical constraints. Designers said the admin site could host shorter or summer meetings but larger events with students would remain at the current boardroom. The board also discussed how the new multipurpose spaces could support district professional development and reduce dependence on external venues.

What’s next: Staff will refine design details (finishes, furniture, mechanical solutions) in coming weeks, provide updated cost estimates after 60% drawings, and return to the board with a recommendation to authorize advertising for bids in early November.