The Willow Glen Resident Passage of state school bond will bring millions to district Between $27 million and $40 million will beautify schools and pay for repairs By Michelle Ku San Jose Unified School District's modernization plan received a boost last week when voters approved Proposition 1A, a $9.2 billion K-12 school and higher education construction bond. The funds from the statewide bond, combined with last year's local $165 million school construction bond, enable SJUSD to complete all of the projects outlined in its modernization plan. "We don't yet know how much money we're going to get from the statewide bond, but it's a minimum of $27 million to the outside of $40 million, but $40 million is unlikely," said Maureen Munroe, SJUSD spokesperson. Phase 1 of the district's modernization plan began this fall with work at Anne Darling, Bachrodt, Booksin, Simonds and Schallenberger elementaries and Pioneer High School. Officials at SJUSD and Kitchell, the firm SJUSD hired to oversee the planning process, have compiled a master modernization plan that will take up to seven years. Work was based on the "need" lists schools submitted before the bond passed last June. The modernization plan calls for three levels of work to be completed at each school in the district. Scope A and Scope B are priority items which include upgrades to fire alarm systems, electrical upgrades, roof repairs and other urgent work. Improvements that fall under Scope C have not been entirely determined but will likely include lower-priority projects such as restroom improvement and paint jobs. In some cases, however, these projects may be categorized under Scope B. Without money from the state bond, the district would have had to forgo Scope C, the third level of work. The district will use the money to do more of the lower-priority work on its modernization master plan. "[The statewide bond] will supplement the scope of the work we can do. It allows us to do more painting and carpeting and those kinds of things whereas the local bond money only allows us to do the essential things," said Rod Sprecher, SJUSD's director of general services. More specifically, the statewide bond will give the district another $500,000 to $600,000 per elementary school to complete the construction projects, Sprecher said. Modernization work at Booksin and Schallenberger began in late September and early October. "We're ahead of schedule. Work wasn't scheduled to start until November, so we're about two months ahead of the schedule," Sprecher said. Among the projects slated for Booksin are new heating and cooling systems in 12 classrooms, an upgrade to the electrical system, the installation of handicapped-accessible ramps and railings, and modification of restrooms in kindergarten and administration rooms for handicapped access. Schallenberger will receive new heating and cooling systems in three buildings, the installation of a wheelchair lift, an upgrade to the fire alarm systems and a restriped parking lot with handicap signage. Work at Booksin and Schallenberger is due to be completed in April or May of 1999. Modernization of the other Willow Glen schools is not scheduled to begin until May 1999, when work begins on Willow Glen Middle School. That construction won't be completed until August 2000. "Middle schools take about a year and a half because you can't disrupt the whole school at the same time. You have to do it in phases to work around the school functioning," said Pam Kinzie, Kitchell program manager. Work is set to begin at Willow Glen High School in May 2000 with completion during the summer of 2002. It takes approximately two years to complete work on a high school, Kinzie explained. The status of work at River Glen Elementary and Broadway High School has yet to be determined and will be based on the district's long-range planning for those sites. To accommodate the increasing student population, the district is slated to build two new neighborhood schools at River Glen and Horace Mann. The existing River Glen will be moved to Broadway, but the district has not decided where to relocate Broadway. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, November 11, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.