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A series of security and remodel upgrades for several schools were approved at last week’s Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting, including a new construction contract that will save taxpayers millions of dollars but with a reduced project scope.
The board on Feb. 26 signed off on a new building contract for the project to rebuild and modernize classrooms at Lydiksen Elementary School months after the district went back to the drawing board after receiving only one bid for Lydiksen construction work for $21.3 million — $6 million over budget.
Santa Rosa-based JL Construction, which presented the lone first bid in July, came back with a lower bid in December for $14.1 million based on a reduced scope of the project. Some site changes include combining the transitional kindergarten building with the kindergarten cluster and getting rid of other workspaces.
Plans for the Lydiksen project, estimated at $30 million overall, include purchasing new furniture for Lydiksen students at an estimated cost of $16,500 to $21,000 per classroom. The costs will be paid for using revenue from Measure I1 school facilities bond.
One of the classroom buildings will be repurposed to maintain the current classroom count and the district also plans to stub out utilities for a future new classroom building, as resources emerge.
Construction is expected to begin this summer, with the goal of overall project completion in the 2021-22 school year.
In other business campus projects approved by the board last week, new amenities will come soon to several elementary and middle schools, including installing new 8-foot-tall security fencing at Fairlands and Mohr elementary schools and Harvest Park Middle School.
A combined total of $922,600 in Measure I1 funds will cover most of the cost for all three campuses; last year the board approved $1.5 million from the same source for the fencing. The fenceline at one of the schools may also move several feet, as district staff noted that some students have managed to climb on top of at least one building from that particular fence.