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The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees approved a roughly $2.35 million insurance payout last week, which came as a result of a fire that broke out last year in the Amador Valley High School small gym.
Board President Justin Brown said the funds from the insurance settlement and release agreement with Northern California Relief will help fund the planned renovations of the athletic and performing arts facilities at the high school, which has been one of the big ticket items listed in the $395 million Measure I general obligation bond.
“As part of refining the design with our site committee, which includes the principal, teachers and community members, we felt that some additional changes — beyond what was first forecasted for Measure I — was needed,” Brown told the Weekly. “As such, we have chosen to invest the insurance funds from the Amador small gym fire as well as other Measure I1 savings and developer fees to support the best possible design for our students such that we meet both medium- and long-term needs.”
On March 17, 2024, the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department responded to a commercial fire alarm at the small gym just before 8 p.m. It was elevated to a second alarm fire before firefighters worked to put it out with the help of the Alameda County Fire Department.
Following the fire, the district cleaned up and stabilized the significant fire damages to the small gym and girls’ locker room. That work cost the district about $511,000, which was later recouped from the district’s insurance carrier.
PUSD then hired an engineer and architect to determine the extent of the damage and repairs and after estimating the cost of repairs, the district decided it didn’t make sense to repair the gym when there are already plans to renovate all of the athletic facilities at the high school as part of the Measure I bond project list, which Pleasanton voters approved in 2023.
Those plans were first introduced — along with the plans to use the insurance money to help fund the overall campus renovation project — during a Jan. 16 board meeting.
“The new campus layout includes a new ‘Avenue of the Dons’ which will connect the sports fields past our new competition gym,” Brown said.
“The new competition gym will support up to 1,700 people and its completion will allow our existing gym to become the new practice gym,” he added. “What was the small gym (which suffered the fire last year) will be replaced and its current location will become part of the theater and arts redesign area.”
