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Bond 2025: Richardson ISD details two-year phasing, portables and safety for Apollo and North Middle projects
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Summary
Facilities staff laid out detailed two-year phasing for Apollo Middle and Richardson North Middle under Bond 2025: significant portable use, covered walkways, security measures (8-foot fencing, panic hardware, cameras), and staged interior turnovers, with completion targeted for August 2028.
Richardson ISD's facilities team gave the board a detailed phasing plan for two of the district's most complicated Bond 2025 projects — Apollo Middle School and Richardson North Middle School — and described safety precautions intended to keep occupied campuses functioning during construction.
Facilities lead Miss Estes walked trustees through a multi-phase schedule that runs from 2026 through August 2028. Apollo is organized into two large phases to use available land for portables, enabling faster turnover of renovated wings. "From April to July we will mobilize construction fencing and site utilities; portables and covered walkways will be put into place and will be occupied beginning in August," she said.
Because Apollo has room for multiple portable buildings, the design uses larger modular buildings with interior corridors, restrooms, controllable HVAC and integrated emergency phones and fire alarms. "These portables are actually a building that has a hallway and then classrooms," Miss Estes said. Facilities staff also described 8-foot non-scalable fencing around portable zones, panic hardware on gates, security camera coverage tied into the main campus system, and panic/911 buttons in each classroom as part of the district's vulnerability-response work.
Richardson North, which lacks expansive laydown space, will be renovated in smaller semester-length chunks, flipping renovations around the central courtyard so parts of the building can continue to be occupied. Both projects include temporary administration suites, phased demolition and new academic wings, and a plan to reduce the number of portables as new wings come on-line.
Trustees asked about traffic, construction vehicle routing and neighborhood impacts; staff said the district hired consultants for traffic management plans, has coordinated with the cities of Richardson and Dallas, and intends to meet with homeowners' associations and distribute mailers for key events. Facilities staff also noted experience from previous projects (Lake Highlands, Forest Meadow) and promised weekly construction updates for parents and staff via campus newsletters and the Bond 2025 website.
Trustees did not take action but asked staff to return with continued updates as the projects move through bid and mobilization phases.
