1. I. Facility History
   1. A. Growth of the district necessitates a 4th building. Elementary is over-capacity. Middle School at capacity and needs additional classrooms added or for 1 grade level to move.  High School has adequate classroom space for up to 500 students (currently 375), however lacks an auditorium that was promised as part of the Story County Penny sales tax usage plan (2003), and lacks space on current property if classroom additions are necessary.  Additionally, the commons area is undersized for capacity beyond 500, along with inadequate space to add additional seating at the football field and west gym in the future.
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   3. B. The State-wide penny sales tax (SILO) was passed by the Legislature in 2008. This bill extended the county by county 10 year penny that had been passed in Story county in 2003(and would have ended in 2013), to 2029. Though the amount per-pupil will decrease with the spreading of revenue equally through the state, the state-wide penny gave Gilbert additional bonding capacity. This additional capacity gave Gilbert the opportunity to consider a larger facility project
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   5. C. School board studied several facility options during winter of 2009. Working with Scott Blum, they considered several different ways an auditorium could be added to the current high school, along with future classroom additions.  They also considered the possibility of building a new elementary building for either PK-2 or 3-5. Several community members participated regularly in the school board meetings and ideas were discussed at PTO meetings and at the high school.  None of the ideas had strong support.  These considerations also highlighted the inadequacies of the current high school sight for long-term viability.

1. II. Long-Range Facility Committee Formed Fall 2009
   1. A. Committee had community members, parents, teachers and administrators.  They studied possible building configurations including building a new elementary school or new high school.  They studied district enrollment history and trends and developed an enrollment tool to predict building growth and capacity at our historical growth average of 3%
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   3. B. Committee determined that the most cost-effective long-range plan would be to build a new high school now.  Though, building a new high school would stretch our current bonding capacity and require a phased and staged plan over several years to re-locate the athletic fields, it was the best plan to ensure adequate growth potential for all age groups within the Gilbert System.

1. III. Facility Committee Recommendation to the School Board to build a new high school in April of 2010.
   1. A. School Board accepts the long range plan of the Facility Committee.
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   3. B. School board puts out an RFP for architectural services and awards the contract to DLR (June 2010)
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   5. C. School board works with DLR to begin to determine scope of the project. The high school project would include land acquisition and building a new high school building with a priority on academic space, some renovation to the elementary (school bathrooms, classrooms, parking lot, and HVAC), and conversion of the current high school to a 3-5 building (refreshing of the common areas, some classroom renovations, addition of an outdoor playspace).
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   7. D. School board works with Piper Jaffery to determine the schools bonding capacity and to develop a financial strategy for facilities and determine the parameters for a general obligation bond election.  In order to accomplish the identified projects, there was approximately 23 million available. There was bonding capacity of 11 million for general obligation bonds, 9 million bonding capacity against the SILO (state-wide penny future proceeds), and 3 million in cash available from proceeds from the Story County penny
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   9. E. Board purchases land from Gene Upstill (fall 2010)
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   11. F. Board works with DLR to submit a FEMA grant for a safe room at the new high school facility.  This would be the wrestling room in the building plan. (October-December (2010)
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   13. G. School board approves a contract with Snyder and Associates for a traffic study to determine the impact of the new high school. Traffic study indicates that there will be significant traffic back-up at the Gretten/Matthews intersection during the morning and afternoon school arrival/dismissal times. The recommendation for the intersection would suggest that turn lanes on all 4 corners would improve the traffic flow. This recommendation was incorporated into the project infrastructure budget.

1. IV. School board plans for a possible bond election in December, 2010.
   1. A. Bond Committee formed and began meeting at the end of September 2010.
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   3. B. Bond Committee selected the name Vote Yes, Gilbert.  Committee meet weekly during late October and November to work with DLR to settle on an overall site plan for the high school that would be presented to the voters.
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   5. C. Committee and board recognized that there were too many unanswered questions to have vote in December and planned for bond election for next allowable date which was February 1, 2011.
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   7. D. Committee worked together to determine the phasing of parts of the long-range project that would not 
   8. be able to be funded in Phase 1.  Auditorium shell would be bid as an alternate.
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   10. E. Budget for the Phase 1 facility plan would include:

1 Million for Infrastructure offsite

2.2 Million for sight development

500K for land acquisition

400K for elementary projects

400K for current high school project to convert to a 3-5 building

1.7M for professional services

16.1Million for the new high school.  Space needs would be approximately 110,000 square feet, not including the

auditorium.

500K for wrestling room

600K for geothermal bore field

1. V. Vote Yes, Gilbert Campaign presents school board with petition for election on December 13, 2010 board meeting and the School board schedules an election for February 1, 2011. General obligation bonds of 11 Million are approved by the Gilbert school District patrons by an 82% favorable vote.

1. VI. Gilbert staff begin working with DLR to determine adequate space needs in the new high school and how the space would be allocated.
2. A. DLR held meetings during March-August with different groups including parents, boosters, teachers and administrators to discuss overall site plan and the interior plans. (technology plan, mechanical plans, lighting and security plans, kitchen plans, interior plans including white boards and cabinetry).

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2. B. The school board recommended to the architects that Phase I include separate classroom space for band and chorus.  This would take those 2 out of the gym space in phase I.  To help with the additional cost for the additional square footage, the separate fitness room area would be moved to a future phase and would be re-located in the gym for phase I.
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4. C. Comparison of spaces in the planned high school and current high school:

1. VII. Ongoing interaction with the School Board and the city of Gilbert to coordinate infrastructure aspects of the project. 
   1. A. Agreements with the city were developed to include improvements to the city of Gilbert sewer system (increasing the size of the trunk line) and extension of the city water line to the high school property. The school district site drainage plan will include the commercial property area north of the high school site, south of Matthews Road. The drainage plan will include a retention area in the southeast corner of the property that will slow the drainage of the water into the storm sewer located at Prairie View Drive. This drainage plan will significantly slow the amount/speed of water entering the Prairie Valley sewer from its current unregulated rate.
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   3. B. The school district’s budget will also include street improvements that will extend 2nd Street to the north parking lot and entrance of the new high school, and improve the intersection at the corner of Gretten and Matthews.
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   5. C. Design work and planning for the elementary parking lot expansion and improvement and work on the HVAC system occurred during March-May of 2011.  A contract was awarded in May 2011 to expand and improve the parking lot at the elementary, particularly the traffic flow for drop off and pick ups. Improvements to the HVAC system during the summer of 2011 have improved the humidity level and comfort in the elementary building. Both projects were completed before the start of school in August 2011.

1. VIII. Architects inform the board that an initial drainage package is recommended to be put for bid in October so that the site can be adequately drained and ready for spring excavation and building.                 
   1. A. Meeting are held to inform the community of the site plan.
   2. B. Meetings with the Gilbert planning and zoning committee and Gilbert city council to receive approval for the drainage plan.
   3. C. Recommendation by the Planning and Zoning Committee to consider eliminating the mid-block entrance/exit for the high school.  Discussion about whether the one access point directly east of Harriman would be sufficient for phase 1.  This would include a change in the site plan to allow for an access point directly east of Prairie View Road in a future phase.
   4. D. School board receives an analysis from Snyder and Associates regarding the earlier traffic study about the feasibility of having only the Harriman southern access point in phase I.  Synder’s analysis indicated that with the addition of a lane for exiting (2 lane exit,1 lane entrance), the exit would be adequate given the traffic volume.
   5. E. Board awards the contract for site drainage to Sandstone with addenmum that moves the retention cell to allow for a future southern access point east of Prairie View.

1. X. 95% construction documents are being reviewed.