Kelseyville Unified ahead of schedule, on budget on bond-funded projects
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Now in its second year of bond-funded projects, the Kelseyville Unified School District is constructing state-of-the-art facilities for students that expand educational opportunities, and increase safety and accessibility.
Voters in the Kelseyville Unified School District passed the $24 million Measure U school bond in June of 2016.
“We're on budget. We're on task,” district Superintendent Dave McQueen told the Measure U Citizens Bond Oversight Committee at its meeting last month.
Of the original total amount, about $8 million is left over, said McQueen.
This is the first bond measure he’s dealt with, and McQueen said it’s been amazing how fast the district has been able to move on its master plan, which includes major projects from replacing portable classrooms to a new shop building, multiuse building, and track and field facilities.
McQueen, along with district director of maintenance and operations Kyle Reams, consultant and project manager Mike Adams and chief architect Alexis Persinger, president of Persinger Architects, met with the Measure U Citizens Bond Oversight Committee at the last of its quarterly meetings of the year on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the district office.
Adams gave the group an update on the bond projects.
He said they’ve been working on six projects, two of which are 100-percent complete.
The completed projects include the Riviera Elementary parking lot, which he said was a tremendous improvement on the flow to traffic, making it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, improving parking overall, removing a gravel area in the middle of the bus dropoff area and installing a new sign at the site.
“It just really dresses up the facility very nice,” said Adams, noting that it’s much safer and creates a situation in which parents dropping off or picking up students don’t conflict with buses and other traffic.
Another project involved moving a portable building down from Cobb to the district grounds, where it’s being used for the Kelseyville Learning Academy, the district’s home school program, Adams said.
Adams said there are four other projects in various stages of progress.
They include three projects at the high school: a group of new modular classrooms that is virtually complete, an ADA-compliant walkway at the front of the school along Main Street and a huge new shop building where the framing has been going up.
“That project’s going quite well,” Adams said. He said the date for the shop’s completion on the contractor’s schedule is Jan. 18, although winter rain could delay it.
At Kelseyville Elementary School, a new multiuse room is being built; at that time, Adams said the concrete was about to be poured. He said it will give children a place to go during lunch on rainy days and also will have a stage for performances.
District officials said the building will have full-size high school basketball court, bleachers, a scoreboard, water fountains and a concession area. It will be Mountain Vista Middle School’s primary place for basketball games. Adams said that new multiuse building should be open and available next fall.
McQueen said that the district has managed to be ahead of schedule on all of its projects.
The effort has been guided by a master plan document that is the result of advance planning the district began in 2014, well ahead of Measure U’s passage.
McQueen said in 2014 Kelseyville Unified’s leadership went through the entire district to determine what needed to be done. He said they concluded that all of the projects would total $40 million, an amount they couldn’t qualify for; instead, they got approval for the $24 million bond.
He said the district board voted on the projects that are the highest priority and they’ve followed that list. Those projects are listed below.
In an effort to bring in more funds to complement the bond, McQueen said the district is applying for Proposition 51 funds and a career technical educational facility grant. If they receive the $3.5 million grant for which they’re qualified, they could put them back in the bond fund.
The career technical grant application should be done at the end of October, with notification by November, McQueen said.
Adams said the district has received a tremendous amount of support from the community for it’s ag-related programs, which always have had a large enrollment. He said they have community members writing support letters for the grant application. “That’s been pretty rewarding.”
McQueen said they’re moving into the next phase in which they will work on Mountain Vista Middle School.
Persinger showed a short video with modeling of how that campus will be improved, with eight buildings to be relocated and renovated once school is over. A bathroom project is slated for the Christmas holiday, along with gym bathrooms and the gym floor.
The work will open up the flow of the campus and its layout, Persinger said.
Reams said a civil engineer already has been out to the site, where plans include installing large drains behind classrooms in order to divert rainwater away from the campus quad.
Adams said tariffs have had an impact on the district’s projects.
When they were bidding out the shop and multiuse buildings, the threat of tariffs arose. Both of those projects called for steel roofing and siding, but tariff concerns caused the bidders to increase their prices on steel tremendously, Adams said.
Rather than pay those higher prices, Adams said the district proactively made changes to its projects. The plans now call for using cement-based Hardy board siding and a more traditional composition roof instead of steel. He said there is no downside to making the siding change, and the district could later change the shop roof to steel, as was done on the gym.
The district also is working with Jendi Coursey on outreach methods to district voters to keep them informed about the bonds, with plans including working with traditional media, social media, mailers, posters, letters and signage.
The bond oversight committee will next meet early in the new year; Adams suggested they look at gathering at the start of February after the shop building is completed.
MEASURE U PROJECTS LIST
Project totals are most recent estimates updated from April 2018.
Summer 2017 projects: $521,366
Gym HVAC, $226,051
Shade structures, #295,315
Summer 2018 projects: $14,235,319
New Kelseyville High School shop: $3,510,513
New gymnasium/multiuse building, to be shared by Kelseyville High, Mountain Vista Middle School and Kelseyville Elementary: $5,823,125
Replacing portables more than 20 years old: $4,363,505
Portable relocation to district office: $236,205
Site improvements: $301,971
Summer 2019 projects: $4,117,781
Renovate portables: $4,117,781
Summer 2020 projects: $4,104,100
Site building improvements: $205,934
Site building improvements: $603,941
Track and field improvements: $3,294,225
Total estimate for all bond projects: $22,978,566
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