California Contractors Schools

Schools open today, poised for big changes in coming years

Lindsay Olsen, who teaches sixth grade at Calistoga Elementary, demonstrates a teaching utility program he uses in the classroom on his iPad. Watching, from left to right, are Superintendent Esmeralda Mondragon, fifth-grade teacher Amy Palma, special education teacher Sarah Flint, and Ivan Miller, junior high math teacher. The school system is putting increasing emphasis on technology, equipping all 80 incoming kindergartners with iPads.

Calistoga’s public schools open today, with 850 students returning to find a system poised on the edge of dramatic change.

The school district is preparing to embark on an ambitious 12-year renovation program, funded by $42 million worth of bonds approved by voters last fall, known as Measure A. (Not to be confused with a separate county-wide “Measure A” from 1998 that funds flood control projects.)

The first round of work, a two-year phase worth more than $16 million, will see new library and classroom facilities at the elementary school and a new gym and multipurpose center that will completely change the face and physical focus of the high school.

Work will begin next summer and the elementary school work may be finished in time for school to start in August 2012. The more extensive high school projects will push into 2013, meaning work will continue during the school year.

School officials have vowed to direct as much of the construction money as possible to local contractors, a key selling point during the campaign to get voters to approve the borrowing last fall.

Superintendent Esmeralda Mondragon, however, warned that the specialized nature of much of the work and the tight legal requirements for public school projects may mean they will have to look farther afield for contractors.

“We recognize that Calistoga is a small community where we may not have the skill level in some cases ... to get a job of that magnitude done,” she said during a meeting with The Weekly Calistogan’s editorial board last week.

The state’s eight-decade-old Field Act sets strict limits on the design of schools, which must be reviewed closely by the State Architect’s Office before construction can begin. The legislation was passed in 1933 after an earthquake in Long Beach destroyed or damaged nearly 200 schools. Regulations have been progressively strengthened, most recently in 2008 when a new state building code went into effect.

“Building for school districts is quite different from building for the private sector,” Mondragon said, noting that many smaller firms are unable or unwilling to go through the more detailed paperwork and bureaucracy required of public-sector projects.

AIACC Advocates for the Sale of School Bonds as a Financial ...

There are nearly 650 school construction projects that have completed the necessary environmental reviews, acquired the necessary state approvals, and are waiting for state funding from the sale of already authorized school bonds. Those projects represent well over $1.63 Billion of state funds that school districts will match with local funds.

School construction has proven to be an effective and immediate economic stimulus. The AIACC recently joined a coalition of school construction industry partners who are actively advocating State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer to sell school construction bonds as part of the Fall 2011 bond sale . The coalition is comprised of public school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, contractors, subcontractors, developers, construction managers, and organized labor – all of whom have united together to encourage the school bond sale as a means to stimulate California’s struggling economy.

The financial impact of this bond sale is significant. The Coalition estimates that for every one million dollars spent on school construction, 18 new jobs are created. Thus, the $1.63B in state funds matched by local funds will produce up to $3.26B in economic activity, creating up to 58,900 new job s if school bonds were sold to provide local districts the necessary state funds to initiate their projects.

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