Preparing for students’ return, Modesto school board hears of summer facility projects
What learning will look like when Modesto City Schools starts its next academic year in August remains very much up in the air. One thing for sure, though, is how a good number of campuses will look when kids return: better.
At its most recent meeting, the school district’s board of education received a report on summer facility improvement projects funded by the district and by Measures D and E bond sales.
Among the work to be done is security fencing at nine more schools to create only a single point of access. The campuses getting that improvement this summer are Lakewood, Sonoma, Muir, Fremont, Burbank, Franklin and Shackelford elementary schools, as well as Mark Twain and Roosevelt junior highs.
“We’ve had a lot of good response, a lot of positive comments, about our single points of entry and how much safer parents felt in bringing their children to the schools knowing that when the school day starts, all access is off” except for the single gate, Associate Superintendent Tim Zearley told The Bee.
Zearley, who made the presentation to the board, said that after this summer, just two district elementary schools — El Vista and Orville Wright — still will be without a single access point. But the work is included in their completed master plans. “Also, none of our seven high school sites have a single point of entry,” he said.
An improvement sure to be a favorite among students is playground equipment replacement at four elementary schools: Robertson Road, Fremont, Burbank and Martone. As schools have been getting new play structures, Zearley said, the district’s new standard is to put shade coverings atop them.
The fencing and playground equipment are bond projects. So are exterior painting and dry-rot repair that will be done at five schools: Bret Harte, Fairview, Kirschen, Marton and Wilson.
Between Measures D and E, voters gave a total bond authorization of $131 million. The first bond sale — “the first bond sale for our district in 17 years,” Zearley noted before the board — was in May 2019. The district received the proceeds, $27 million, at the end of that month.
“These are the dollars we’re currently working off of when we’re talking about our projects that we have not only completed but also planning,” Zearley said. He told the board the district “received a very high credit rating of Aa2 at the time.” Given that and a “favorable interest rate environment” at the time, taxpayers were saved $3.3 million between what the board approved and actual costs, he said.
Good opportunities in a bad time
Board President Cindy Marks was impressed by the “hefty savings,” and board member Chad Brown thanked the public for passing the bond measures. “There could not have been better timing,” he said.
Referring to the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, he added, “When you look at where we sit right now, I look at the great opportunity that we have for savings. As we move into an economically challenged time, we will be able to get the best bang for our buck because we’re ready with the funds to spend on projects that are desperately needed. And we have people who will be desperately looking for work that we will provide.”
Brown also said the district is fortunate to be able to get work done during an “unprecedented time when we don’t have students on our campuses.”
Board member Amy Elliott Neumann asked Zearley if the school campus closures did allow a jump-start on facilities improvements, and he said that wasn’t the case for bond-funded work. Those projects had to get board authorization to go through the bidding process and the issuance of construction contracts. So when the pandemic hit, “we already had our schedule ... and it really wasn’t conducive to push that up at all.”
The time without students has been used to sanitize classrooms and facilities, though, which will be done again, he said.
District-funded work orders are a different matter than the bond projects, Zearley said, and crews have been able to get onto the vacant school grounds to start that work.
Projects at Beyer, Davis and Mark Twain
Among the district-funded projects on the summer calendar is modernizing and renovating portable classrooms already on the Beyer High campus for the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program that will be launched there.
Another is improvements at Mark Twain Junior High including window replacement, Americans with Disabilities Act restroom upgrades, interior wall refinishing and storm drain improvements. Zearley said the work is not because of the August 2018 arson at the school, but “when we took our plans to DSA (the Division of the State Architect) to make our fire repairs, these are items that came up as needed to be completed as well.”
A big improvement at Davis High will be the modernization of its cafeteria food service area, much like Modesto High got last summer, Zearley said. He said the work will give the area a Starbucks feel, with food cases showing students their choices. It will be visually appealing, and the food delivery will be modernized to make lines quicker and more efficient, Zearley said.
He said he doesn’t anticipate any future social-distancing measures throwing a wrench into the cafeteria improvement. If anything, “we probably will be better able to maneuver if we have to, with the modernization of the serving area, to comply with any forthcoming distance requirements.”
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
