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The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees is set to look at approving new contracts with an architectural firm to complete the necessary paperwork for the construction of transitional kindergarten classrooms at Fairlands and Donlon elementary schools during Thursday’s regular meeting.
If approved, the new contracts with HED Architects, a firm based in Michigan, will allow the firm to continue developing the design documents, obtain approval of the project designs from the Division of the State Architect and perform construction administration for the project, according to the staff report.
According to the TKCalifornia website, which is an educational resource hub for teachers and administrators, transitional kindergarten, otherwise known as TK, classrooms act as a bridge between preschool and kindergarten. The goal of TK is for students to “not only learn essential pre-literacy, pre-math and other cognitive skills, but also develop social and self-regulation skills needed to succeed in school and life.”
TK classrooms were one of the projects listed in the $270 million Measure I1 general obligation bond that Pleasanton voters passed in 2016. After the board approved the construction of the classrooms, the district’s facilities committee had been working with LPA Design Studios, a planning architecture firm based in San Jose, and site committees from both schools to complete the initial programming and design needs.
According to the staff report, that work was completed this past summer, but when the district’s facilities and construction team began negotiating the construct for the remainder of the design work with the firm, LPA was “unable to agree to terms with the district on their contract for the remainder of the work.”
That’s why staff went and sought out the help of HED Architects, the district’s second highest ranked architectural team, to complete the work.
“HED will provide all required DSA paperwork and services to get DSA certification paperwork for the project,” the staff report states. “The fee for these services is within the project budget, and HED is well qualified to perform these services.”
The cost of HED’s services for the Donlon work will be $833,696 while the work for the Fairlands project will be $1,036,695 — the money for both will come from Measure I1 funds.
The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 26).
Read the full agenda here.
In other business
* District staff will lead a fiscal presentation to the board on “understanding the PUSD budget and impacts of salary increases,” covering a range of budget components including the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).
The LCFF is state money that makes up a significant portion of the district’s budget.
The presentation will also go over revenue funding sources, unrestricted and restricted revenues and expenditures, overall expenditures, ending fund balances, reserves, multi-year projections and the impact of salary increases on the budget.
It will be the first budget discussion by the board since the Association of Pleasanton Teachers declared an impasse in negotiations with the district, with salary increases being a main sticking point between the two sides.
* Staff will also be presenting an update on Valley View Elementary School Dual Language Immersion Program Master Plan.
The update will go over the district’s plan for dual language immersion for TK students to seniors as part of its overall dual language immersion program, but will specifically go over the first phase of the plan starting at an elementary level.
“The Pleasanton Unified Dual Language Immersion Program produces students who are bilingual and biliterate, thus preparing them for college and beyond,” according to the staff presentation. “We accomplish this by ensuring that students attain high levels of learning and proficiency in both the languages.”
