District OKs bonds for Marin City, Sausalito schools -Marin IJ - July 28, 2006 By Don Speich

District OKs bonds for Marin City, Sausalito schoolsMarin IJ
July 28, 2006
By Reporter
Don Speich


A new middle school in Marin City, the cornerstone of an ambitious program to improve academic programs, took a major step forward Thursday night when trustees of the Sausalito Marin City School District unanimously approved the issuance of bonds to finance the project.
The new Martin Luther King Jr. Academy school, along with the renovation of the Bayside Elementary School in Sausalito, will be financed by a $15.9 million bond measure passed by voters in 2004. Income the district receives under building-lease agreements with the city of Sausalito will provide an additional $1.3 million for the project, bringing the total to $17.9 million - an amount that just a few weeks ago appeared significantly less than was needed.

Earlier this summer, the board was told by engineering consultants that construction of the school would cost far more than expected because the site was unstable bay mud. Consultants said there were a variety of ways to stabilize the structure but that they were extremely costly - the least expensive was well over $1 million more than the district had.

The consultants and architects were sent back to the drawing board to reduce the costs. Hopes were not high. Trustee Shirley Thornton lamented at the time, "we'll be left with a tent."

But, explained Patty Swiss helm, the district's bond project coordinator, the experts turned the proposed buildings a little here and a little there, backed them up closer to the hard soil on Phillips Drive, the street that borders the school, and produced a modified design that will be constructed on a solid foundation.

The school will be located on the site now occupied by the Manzanita Child Learning Center.

She said the new design is better than the original.

The adjustment reduced the projected cost from the $10 million it would have taken to stabilize buildings on bay mud to $8.9 million for the new design, said Swisshelm.

Of the total $17.9 million, $8.9 million is for the construction of MLK with $2.3 million earmarked for Bayside. The remaining $6 million-plus is for consultant and architecture services, environmental and soil studies, temporary portable classrooms at Bayside, furniture and fixtures, she said.

Trustee President George Stratigos has stressed the middle school must give students an experience that, in setting, structure and curriculum, will be similar to that found in high schools. It is crucial, he said, to turn around a middle school program that too frequently graduates students who read, if they can at all, far below grade level.

Before the school had to be redesigned, it was expected that the project would get under way in August. But Swisshelm said the redesigning process could change the timeline.

Meanwhile, portable classrooms have been moved onto the campus of Bayside to house kindergarten through second-grade students during the renovation, which is supposed to be completed by late summer 2007.

The remaining four grades at the school will remain in the school's classrooms that are unaffected by the renovation.

Contact Don Speich via e-mail at dspeich@marinij.com


Article Launched: 07/28/2006 04:53:53 AM PDT