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The Mountain View Whisman School District is moving ahead with a districtwide effort to make its schoolyards greener, cooler and more usable, even as the project’s price tag has grown to about $1.4 million over budget.
The outdoor learning project will add shade, gardens, learning areas and nature-based play spaces across Mountain View Whisman campuses, with the goal of making schoolyards cooler, greener and more usable for learning and play.
Last summer, the district transformed Vargas Elementary School to include landscaped outdoor gathering areas with pathways, trees and native plants, as well as rocks and logs for kids to sit on. The campus also got painted asphalt and an outdoor garden.
This summer, the district is planning to make similar changes to most of the rest of its campuses, with Bubb, Crittenden, Graham, Imai, Landels, Monta Loma, Stevenson and Theuerkauf getting upgrades.
Work isn’t expected to take place until next summer at Castro and Mistral elementary schools, because the two schools, which share a campus, are currently hosting sumer programs.
The district had budgeted around $10.1 million for this round of construction, but the contract ended up coming in at roughly $11.5 million, according to a May 14 district staff report.
The majority of this summer’s work should be finished before students return next month, though some cleanup may continue after school starts, Westover said.
District officials say the construction is different from a regular landscaping project because it is meant to create usable learning and play spaces, not just add greenery.
“This project has been a three-year project at this point, so it’s been underway a long time,” Chief Business Officer Rebecca Westover said. “Where we started was definitely not where we ended up.”
How campuses are expected to change
The project changed over time as the district held community meetings and gathered feedback from students, parents and staff, Westover said. Some designs expanded from general outdoor learning concepts to include playground elements and smaller learning areas spread across the campus.
“It’s our project that has had the most excitement around it, the most feedback, the most communication, most community members and parents and kids involved,” Westover said.
Vargas has become a model for what the district hopes to bring to other campuses, Westover said. At Vargas, the district has already seen children spread out across the campus, using the natural play spaces and spending time in places that were once mostly asphalt.
“It’s not just the teaching that happens in the classroom, which is the number one thing,” Westover said. “The environment that they’re learning in is important as well.”
Many of the plans are native and should require less care than other types of landscaping, but the new spaces will require some additional maintenance. The district is working with Canopy on a pilot program at Vargas to have families and other community members help maintain the outdoor areas, Westover said.
Measure T funds cover the overage
The outdoor learning project is being paid for with funds from Measure T, a bond program that voters approved in 2020.
Mountain View Whisman has been facing budget challenges, with the school board approving more than $7 million in cuts this past spring. However, district officials emphasize that Measure T money can’t be spent on day-to-day operating expenses, with the funds instead restricted to bond-eligible facilities projects.
“This funding is completely separate from what we can spend in the classroom,” Westover said. “We cannot spend this money on teacher salaries, we cannot spend it on supplies for students.”
The school board voted unanimously on May 28 to approve a contract with EF Brett and Company for this summer’s construction. The contract is a lease-leaseback agreement, meaning the district temporarily leases the project sites to the contractor, which builds the improvements. The district then pays for the finished facilities through lease payments to the contractor.
According to district officials, the method lets the school district work with the contractor on planning, materials and construction logistics before work begins. The cost is capped at $11.46 million, plus interest on lease payments.
According to Westover, a major cost driver is the amount of earth movement involved in the project.
“You bring big trucks in and you move a lot of dirt, it takes a lot of gas,” Westover said. “That price increase, a good portion of it is directly connected to the cost of gas right now.”
EF Brett was also the only company to submit a proposal, even though three firms attended a pre-proposal meeting. According to district staff, the project’s tight summer timeline, its work across eight sites and the current construction market made it less attractive to bidders.
The contract was originally $12.39 million, but the district decided to reduce the furniture and equipment package to bring the cost down to about $11.46 million, according to the May 14 district staff report. According to Westover, those reductions could include items such as freestanding chalkboards, whiteboards and benches, which can be added later if schools need them
“That’s a very easy way for us to cost contain for the project, while not altering the overall feel,” Westover said.
Im no math major, The easiest way to cost constraint would be to push next year and let more people bid on it, no? Not sure why we had to jam it in. The land ain’t goin anywhere.