School board encouraged to abandon plans for new JLS; spread money over more schools
Palo Alto schools Superintendent Don Phillips will recommend to the school board on Monday that the district abandon plans to rebuild Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School because of the expense.
At a study session Monday, the board also is expected to make decisions on how extensive the construction will be at Jordan Middle School and Paly and Gunn high schools.
In June, consultants told the school board that the cost to rebuild JLS--originally estimated at $16.2 million--had jumped to $23.7 million. District consultants say the school could be renovated for about $14 million.
"I think (building new) is way too expensive at this point," said board President John Tuomy. "Our problem with JLS is no architects have done any work on what it would take to refurbish." Instead they have focused on building a new school.
Others remain cautious before giving up on plans for a new JLS, which called for a controversial circular building design.
"I haven't seen the backup for this," said Palo Alto architect John Barton, chair of the project's program review committee. "I'd have to see the tradeoffs. I'm not married to the idea of a new JLS, but that set of buildings (that exists now) is a money hole. I'm just having a hard time believing that that number isn't going to creep up to $17 or $18 million. . . . We could (come up with) a less expensive design."
The board will also review the plans for Jordan Middle School, and Gunn and Palo Alto high schools to weigh the needs for new construction and renovation.
Under the existing plan, many buildings at Jordan, Paly and Gunn will be getting little or no work done. Phillips' new plan would have all buildings brought up to a certain standard before adding new construction to the mix. The tradeoff may be less new construction.
"I think we have to bring everything up to a certain standard," Tuomy said. "Somehow we got away from that. I certainly ran into that (when I saw) the JLS gym," which was not slated for much work. "It's like the worst inner-city facility."
"The master plan is having to be significantly reworked," Phillips said. "We're going to be able to do some of the new (construction) . . . We're just not going to be able to do all of it. I think the master plan is still a viable document, but it is being dramatically reworked.
"We're looking at what would it cost to bring everything up to where it would last 20 to 25 years," he said.
District consultants have spent the past four months reviewing the $143 million bond project's master plan. Escalating construction costs, the addition of class size reduction requirements, which impacts the size of classrooms, and numerous additions to the plans have resulted in a master plan that is about $32 million over budget.
"We'd better go through and do what we promised to do in the bond--get everything up to a certain standard and do some new construction," Tuomy said. "We must make sure we live up to those promises."
--Elizabeth Darling
Back up to the Table of Contents Page