Board of Education receives updates on facilities projects

As a District, we continue to make progress in ensuring all students are able to learn in the best and safest possible learning environments. Our Board continues to honor their commitment to invest over $7 million per year into capital facilities projects, and we’ve completed much of the work needed in our elementary and high school spaces — now the focus is on our middle schools.

At the Board’s September 14, 2022 meeting, Dr. Brian O’Keeffe, Assistant Superintendent for Business Services, shared with the Board the guiding principles that staff and architects will utilize as they approach projects at Edison, Franklin, and Monroe Middle Schools. The guiding principles include 1. facility needs such as mechanical, utilities, ADA, capital upgrades related to code and modernization, furniture, fixtures and equipment, and space configuration; and 2. educational needs related to the Vision 2026 Strategic Plan such as learning acceleration and the Portrait of a Graduate.

The District has implemented a playground replacement playbook at our elementary schools starting in the summer of 2022 and will be developing a similar model that will allow the District to renovate our library learning centers (LLCs), starting with Whittier and Johnson in the summer of 2023. At their meeting, Legat Architects provided the Board with an update and diagram of the LLC upgrades for Johnson and Whittier Elementary Schools.