Summary: Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Work Session #3

The Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2019-28 CIP includes a new 725-seat elementary school at Reed; a second 725-seat elementary school opening in 2029; a middle school addition with 300 new seats in 2023; 600 seats in the renovated Education Center to expand enrollment at Washington-Lee, and an 800-seat addition at the Career Center. Please Note: No decisions have been made about what will be in the final CIP that the School Board will take action on in June.

At the CIP Work Session #3, APS staff presented two scenarios the School Board had inquired about at the May 7 CIP Work Session. Both scenarios offer alternatives that could be considered by the School Board in terms of timing, type, and amenities offered at facilities included in the Superintendent’s Proposed CIP. Also, both scenarios include a new 725-seat elementary school at Reed to open in 2021, and both sought to bring high school seats at the Career Center earlier than had been envisioned in the Superintendent’s Proposed CIP. The following is a summary of the two scenarios presented:

• Scenario A: Would open 800 seats and a performing arts addition at the Career Center by 2024. By 2026, this scenario includes the opening of a synthetic field and parking garage.  The trade-off in this scenario is that the timing to develop a new elementary school with 725 seats and add 300 seats at a middle school is pushed back to 2031. This scenario also necessitates 80 relocatable classrooms in the 2027-28 peak year.
• Scenario B: By 2021, the renovated Education Center would house the students in the Montessori program located at the Henry site. In this same year, once the Montessori students at Henry have been moved, the Henry building would provide 500 temporary neighborhood high school seats. By 2024, an additional 800 seats would be opened at the Career Center along with 500 more permanent seats to replace the temporary seats in the Henry building. At that point, the Henry building would be demolished to make way for a synthetic field by 2026. In the same year in this scenario, another synthetic field with an underground parking garage also would be slated to open. This scenario calls for 80 relocatable classrooms needed in the 2027-28 peak year.

The School Board also heard comments from members of the School Board advisory groups including the co-chairs from the Advisory Council on Instruction (ACI), Tina Kuklenski-Miller and Meredith Purple; Stacy Snyder, chair of the Advisory Council on School Facilities and Capital Projects (FAC); and Matt de Ferranti (chair) and Cecilia Ciepiela-Kaelin (vice chair) of the Budget Advisory Council (BAC).

Upon receiving the staff’s assessment and further discussion of the implications of Scenarios A and B, the School Board asked staff to analyze new CIP considerations in preparation for the CIP Work Session #4 which will be held on Thu, May 22, at 7 p.m. in the School Board Meeting Room at the Syphax Education Center, located at 2110 Washington Blvd.

For more details about both scenarios and the School Board discussion, please see the presentation which is posted on the Engage website, and view the livestream of the work session.