Windsor School Board adopts new facilities utilization master plan

Upgrades expected; new schools might be
forthcoming
By DOUG McCASLAND, Staff Writer
The Windsor school board has approved a new master plan that
would – if fully implemented – reduce overcrowding, upgrade
facilities, and perhaps add one or two new campuses. The plan is
being sent to state education officials in Sacramento and will also
be filed with the Town planning department, which will provide an
evaluation.
It’s officially called the Facilities Utilization Master Plan,
and the Windsor Unified School District hired two consultants to
write it. They worked for seven months with a committee of 15
people, representing parents, teachers, staff and administrators,
to produce the document. The result is 70 pages long, with hundreds
of pages of facts and figures in its many appendices. During the
process, the committee visited each school site in Town, conducted
interviews and polls, took photos and compiled new data.
The state requires a school district to have such a plan on file
to be eligible for matching funds, which are available for both
improvements to existing sites and building new campuses.
The new plan replaces the previous one, which had been in effect
since 1993. The old plan recommended building a new high school and
new middle school. Both of those major projects were completed by
2000. The previous plan also specified a number of upgrades, but
&#8220the work needed at existing sites identified in the early
’90s still has not been done for the most part,” said Dickson
Schwartzbach, one of the consultants.
In broad terms, the new plan addresses two current issues –
present-day overcrowding, and defective or deficient physical
facilities. And it predicts a need for one or two new schools.
At a special joint school board meeting with the Town Council
and staff on March 29, there was a long discussion about new school
sites, with much speculative detail.
At the regular board meeting a week later, however, the board
talked in a more general way about how to proceed and what should
come first. &#8220We (should) look at what we’re about,” said
trustee Cheryl Scholar, &#8220our mission statement, our core
values, and extend those into the future, how can we contain those
important things in the future?”
&#8220Do we just look at sites and numbers of students?”
responded board president Rick Massell. &#8220Do we look at
that vision first? It’s going to be bigger, we don’t know how much
bigger. What would we like to see in a district? Then we come back
to more specific practicalities of how many sites are we actually
going to build, etc.”
&#8220Compacting” the overloaded schools can mean moving
certain school populations to less crowded schools and also adding
new buildings on existing or new sites. The plan indicates that the
Mattie Washburn Elementary campus has 198 percent of the acreage
beyond what is needed for its enrollment. The Windsor Creek
Elementary campus has 248 percent. Both sites could thus
accommodate more buildings.
Windsor Oaks Academy, the district’s alternative high school
emphasizing study skills and vocational training, should simply be
relocated to a newly built site, the plan says. Its current
location in four portable classrooms in the high school parking lot
is inadequate. A previously-issued Alternative Education master
plan recommended moving Windsor Oaks to a site on district-owned
land next to Cali Calmécac Charter School – called the Springfield
Court site – but that idea is still in its initial stages.
Due to its age, the Cali campus, built in 1968, needs numerous
improvements to its permanent buildings to provide adequate space,
water, electricity, and Internet capability. The site also needs
expanded kitchen facilities for preparing hot lunches on-site. A
music room is also called for.
Windsor Creek Elementary, built in the early 1950s, needs
improvements such as a redesigned parking area (to include a rain
shelter), plumbing in the science lab, more adult restrooms, an
upgraded kitchen, fewer exposed conduits and cords in the library
and more storage and shelving. Portable classrooms would be
replaced with permanent ones, under the plan.
The surveys taken at other schools identified top-priority
upgrades and additions. Windsor Middle School wants a band room.
Windsor High School needs a track and field, and science labs.
What is now Mattie Washburn Elementary was originally designed
as a middle school in the early 1990s. But the need for a primary
school turned out to be greater, and so it opened in 1993, without
much re-design, to serve grades K-1 instead. &#8220The mismatch
between the facility design and the facility use has not been
rectified,” the report says. A new master plan for the school
itself will be needed, according to the report. Among the top
priorities are a multi-purpose room (never built there), upgraded
kitchen, and shelter and shade for outdoor eating areas.
Brooks Elementary’s top request, by far, is to get its portable
classrooms replaced. The district spends almost $600,000 a year to
lease portable classrooms for nearly all of its campuses, so
replacing them with permanent buildings makes good long-term sense,
said Superintendent Steve Herrington.
Constructing all-new schools is, of course, a much bigger and
more expensive idea. But the plan is certain in its
recommendations. Using a &#8220very conservative” estimate, it
projects an increase in enrollment of 10 percent over the next five
years, which could equal 479 students. Over the next 10 years, the
figure doubles to 1,017 students. That equals two schools with a
grade range of K-8.
Even with all the study and results, the board is not close to
making any major decisions. Among the next few defined steps is the
hiring, perhaps as early as June, of an architect-planner.
According to the plan, the architect would make recommendations for
Windsor Oaks, Cali, and Mattie Washburn and give cost estimates for
all the recommended upgrades.
The architect’s findings would probably be submitted to the
district by September, Massell said.
&#8220It would be difficult,” he added, &#8220to expand
the campuses sufficiently. Windsor Creek is apparently in pretty
bad shape. But there’s a lot of room there, and a lot of options.
We’ll just have to see, as we progress, after the architect looks
at it, to see if we can make do with what we’ve got.” Massell also
mentioned, as others have, the potential for building up –
two-story buildings would make more efficient use of expensive
land.
Trustee Shari Egan has some hopes – and doubts. She is very
interested in hearing what the architect will report.
&#8220There are options that a good architect can submit to you
that you had no idea existed.”
But, she added, &#8220I have fears. I watch the news and see
all the places that have declining enrollment. For us to plan and
build an entire new site for students that will most likely come,
it kind of scares me a little bit. We’re committed once that
(school) is open. You can’t change your mind and say we need to do
something different.”
Massell concurs on that point. &#8220If the different
demographic projections are off, how hard is it going to be to
adjust? There are many many issues to discuss.”
The trustees, guided by the master plan, will walk through all
the sites in May and see the problems and challenges
first-hand.
Meanwhile, an environmental and botanical study of the
Springfield Court site will proceed. Already, district personnel
have visited adjacent homes, not only to advise residents about the
study, but also to ask them if they personally remember any past
hazards at the site. Further study of the site will include a title
search. If the property is determined to be unusable for a school,
it can be sold.