New school development, renovations under way in SRVUSD Population increase demands new school, infrastructure improvements By Jessica Lipsky
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lans for several large projects are under way as officials from the San Ramon Valley Unified School District begin use of funds from the Measure D school bond. Approved in November 2012, the $260 million facilities bond will allow for a variety of infrastructure improvements throughout San Ramon and Danville schools. Chief among the projects is a $29.4 million elementary school in San Ramon’s Dougherty Valley, slated to open in fall 2015, approximately one half-mile southwest of the Dougherty Station Community Center and Library. The as-yetnamed school will sit on a 7.4 acre site adjacent to a future 30-acre community park; Shapell Homes donated the land to SRVUSD in 2012 with the understanding that play fields will also serve as a permanent park for the city. Designed by Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, the school will feature two two-story classroom buildings, a comprehensive multi-use building, child care administration building and a large playfield equipped for soccer and softball. Design plans for the school were submitted to the California Department of Education and California Division of State Architect in fall 2012. Gary Black, assistant superintendent for facilities and maintenance for SRVUSD, said Shappell will begin grading and construction of retaining walls in November. The school district is set to begin construction of the school itself in April 2014. The new school will accommodate approximately 830 kindergarten through fifth grade students, with the possibility of a transitional kindergarten class still up in the air. Officials expect the school to help alleviate the enrollment crunch at Dougherty Valley’s four existing
elementary schools, all of which house over 1,000 students in buildings meant for 900. “We really tried to expedite the process for the new school because of the issue of growth that continues in that community,” said district spokesman Terry Koehne. “The wave is continuing. Whether or not it’s a bubble or how long it’s going to last is everyone’s question. It’s fair to say that most of our growth is coming from the Dougherty Valley.” Approximately 31,400 students are enrolled in SRVUSD for the 2013-14 school year and 9,026 students are enrolled in Dougherty Valley schools. Assistant Superintendent Gary Black said demographic predictions show no drop-off in student population at the kindergarten level; Quail Run Elementary had the smallest kindergarten class in Dougherty Valley this year with 120 students while the rest of the district averaged 79 students. “A lot of our growth is the younger kids matriculating up with kindergarten and first grade back-filling at the same levels,” he said. “It’s not necessarily new housing units coming in, though that’s layered on top of the growth.” According to 2010 Census data, an estimated 26,445 people called Dougherty Valley home and the average household size was 3.32 people — compared to 2.85 in the rest of San Ramon. Dougherty Valley also saw a large increase in the number of multigenerational families, those with three or more generations in a single household. As of September, Shapell had approximately 1,548 units left to build in the Dougherty Valley; roughly 1,200 single family detached homes and 347 single family attached units. District officials have also seen increased enrollment at the second-
Courtesy of San Ramon Valley Unified School District
Preliminary design for a new elementary school in the Dougherty Valley. The school is slated to open in fall 2015.
ary level as enlarged elementary student populations matriculate to middle schools. To that end, SRVUSD will use between $5 and $6 million in Measure D funds to add a new classroom wing to Dougherty Valley High School. “The bond will pay for the majority of the addition, but the growth has been such that we need to use some of our growth dollars to expand the school,” Black said, adding that Measure D funds pay for permanent structures. “The total number of classrooms coming is 12 permanent and six to 12 relocatables.” The addition is slated for completion in January 2016, at the earliest, and is dependent on a variety of factors including assessed valuation, interest rates and the speed at which new houses are built in the area. Additional homes will “increase the tax base, decrease the tax burden and then we can get bond money faster,” Black noted. Measure D funds are also allocated for seismic upgrades at Walt Disney and Neil Armstrong elementaries, new stadium bleachers
at San Ramon Valley High and, eventually, the addition of a 47 classroom, three-story wing at the high school. The SRVHS wing is slated to break ground after completion of a major renovation at Stone Valley Middle School, scheduled for June 2015. “We are still finishing up a whole lot of other projects still in the pipeline and Measure D projects are what we’re putting in the pipeline now,” Black said. “Still seeing projects finishing, while they might not be on Measure D ledger, there’s a lot of pre-working going on....at breakneck speed.” The first series of Measure D bonds sold on Feb. 14, 2013 generated net proceeds of nearly $75 million at an interest cost of 3.53 percent. Black said that the district will have come a long way by the time the full bond amount is issued. “For far too long we were a high performing district with sub-par facilities and that’s not the case anymore. Thanks to the generosity of our community, we’ve been able to correct that,” Koehne added. n
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