The Sulphur Springs Union School District governing board has approved an overview improvement plan for the district’s schools, a site layout plan for the future elementary school site in the Skyline Ranch community and a resolution that will allow for the district to replace three diesel buses with three zero-emission buses.
All governing board members were present at last week’s meeting at Sulphur Springs Community School. Before approving the school facilities improvement plan, Khushroo Gheyara, executive vice president of Caldwell, Flores & Winters, reviewed the district’s school facilities improvement plan that would modernize current classrooms, build new classrooms to accommodate additional students and staff, update playgrounds to be more inclusive and provide a space for science labs and music rooms.
At the Oct. 23 board meeting, representatives from CFW recommended work across the district’s campuses that would cost an estimated $172.3 million. CFW recommended the district use state aid grants – mentioning the district could be eligible for approximately $31.7 million in modernization grants within the next 10 years and may be eligible to receive $7.5 million in new construction grants by 2032.
They also said a general obligation bond could help pay for the improvements. If the district decides to seek a bond, it could be placed on the 2026 ballot, and if approved by voters, would be issued over six years and would generate approximately $121.7 million.
“The board has not declared any intent to seek a bond measure, but in the future the bond measure would have to be considered to be able to complete all these improvements,” said Gheyara.
Board member Shelley Weinstein said that this is the most comprehensive plan the board has looked over and she was glad they had a road map on what the district needed to improve over the years depending on how much funding the district receives.
Weinstein moved the item for approval. Board member Lori MacDonald seconded the motion and all other board members agreed to approve the school facilities improvement plan, 5-0.
Scott Gaudineer, president and CEO of Flewelling and Moody architectural firm, reviewed the first site layout plan that the governing board members stated they were leaning more in favor of from the Oct. 9 board meeting.
The site layout plan included two classroom buildings, a kindergarten building, a multi-purpose room, an administration and learning center building, two parking lots, a baseball field, blacktop courts, a soccer field with a track surrounding it and grass fields.
“I’d like to show you that we made some modifications based on what we heard from the board at our last meeting,” said Gaudineer to the board members.
Gaudineer showed the board members that he added a service road on the north side of the campus to allow for flexibility and accessibility in case of an emergency and separated the kindergarten drop-off lane and the bus drop-off lane.
Gaudineer said that the site is almost done being cleaned up from rocks so the next step would be to begin the geotechnical investigation to make sure the ground can withstand the buildings. He mentioned that he could not foresee the site having any issues with being able to maintain the layout plan.
Weinstein moved the item for approval. Board member Denis DeFigueiredo seconded the motion and all other board members agreed to approve the first design option for the future elementary school in the Skyline Ranch Community, 5-0.
With the approval of the site layout plan for the school, Gaudineer said representatives of Flewelling and Moody plan to be back Dec. 18 to go over the schematic design.
The district also approved three more electric school buses to replace three diesel school buses to further the district’s participation in the Zero-Emission School Bus and Infrastructure Project, said Joshue Randall, deputy superintendent of business services.
“We have currently 11 electrics, five diesels, and five propane buses, so this will take us to 14 electrics, two diesels, and five propane,” said Randall.
DeFigueiredo moved the item for approval. Board member Paola Jellings seconded the motion and all other board members agreed to approve the resolution to participate in the Zero-Emission School Bus and Infrastructure Project, 5-0.
