When Scotts Valley school officials, teachers, students, architects, and contractors dug into a pile of dirt at Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Scotts Valley Middle School, there was a sense of release – and of urgency.
Relief because finally – more than three years after voters approved the bonds for the project, more than 15 years after the first failed bond vote, and more than 75 years after the first middle school building was built on the site – construction on a new school was about to begin.
Urgency because, despite recent delays, the $33.29 million contract to build the Scotts Valley Middle School has an August 2018 completion date.
That’s just 14 months to build six new buildings – including a new gym – and renovate four others, with the majority of the work occurring during the teaching year.
The site of the groundbreaking was the site of what will be some of the first work of the project, building an administrative office on what had been boys and girls locker rooms. The site preparation work and removal and relocation of portable buildings began last fall.
The general contractor, Overaa Construction, won’t be able to begin taking apart the old gym or erecting the pre-fab administration, classroom or library buildings until mid-June.
That’s when a 30-day comment period required by U.S. Fish and Wildlife is over and actual construction permits can be issued.
The goal is to have the principal’s office, library and three classroom buildings completed by the end of the calendar year.
This will be possible, say architects, because the new structures are modular, pre-fabricated buildings, which will be placed on concrete slabs.
The district got its critical greenlight – and cause for celebration at the groundbreaking –when Fish and Wildlife officials last week announced final approval of a plan to ease the impact of the project on an endangered beetle, the Mount Hermon June Beetle, that will allow construction to begin in earnest.
That approval had been expected in February, but new requirements – and some bureaucratic foot-dragging – in Washinton, D. C., stalled the process for nearly three months. Superintendent Tanya Krause said pressure from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo appeared to have helped.
The project will proceed in two broad phases.
The first phase, with a completion goal of the end of this year, will see the erection of three pre-fab class room buildings at the southeast corner of the campus, located at Bean Creek Road and Scotts Valley Drive.
In the courtyard of these three new buildings – now an open area where portable classrooms has once stood, the new library will be built. This also is a pre-fabricated structure.
Demolition of the old gym will begin in June, said Mike Smith, the staff person who is coordinating the project.
After completion of the first phase, the district plans to spend the winter “break” moving into the new classrooms, and clearing out three current classroom buildings so they can be gutted and completely renovated.
The two temporary classroom buildings now being used at the southwest corner of the campus will help in this extensive relocation effort.
If all goes well, the renovation of the three classroom buildings, and a multi-purpose building which is the current administrative office, can begin.
The new gymnasium will rise during the school year, with completion slated for next summer. Plans to build a new athletic field were scrapped because of issues related to the Mount Hermon June Beetle.
If all goes according to plan, students next fall will enter a new campus.
