The Abridged version:
- Sacramento City Unified is moving full steam ahead on more than a dozen school facility projects, fueled by voter-approved bond money.
- Their to-do list includes a possible teardown and rebuild of Miwok Middle School, the district’s largest middle school, starting in 2029.
- Officials still must decide whether to temporarily displace students or keep them on the East Sacramento campus for a phased reconstruction following conversations with families this spring.
- The district faces a multimillion-dollar budget crisis but is able to continue building due to these earmarked funds.
Sacramento City Unified School District has more than a dozen new construction projects on the horizon.
Some are splashy like a new competition pool for McClatchy High School; others are more technical, including HVAC system upgrades across multiple campuses.
One – the anticipated teardown and rebuilding of Miwok Middle School – is expected to draw widespread reaction from parents. Household discussions about which middle school students should attend often begin years before they reach seventh grade.
Chris Ralston, assistant superintendent of facilities for the district, said his team plans to gather feedback from families before embarking on each endeavor, including Miwok — just as it has done for projects past.
“When we’re changing the school, they’re one of our stakeholders,” Ralston told Abridged. “In reality, we’re just doing what they’re asking us to do.”
Taxpayers approved latest project list last year
Sacramento taxpayers gave the district the green light last fall for up to $543 million in bonds for 13 projects.
Four years earlier, voters approved a similar multipursuit list worth up to $750 million of bonds.
The district is currently wrapping up work funded by that 2020 measure and turning attention to its latest approved ambitions. The timeline for the 2024 measure projects will stretch past 2029, Ralston said.
Miwok must come down; construction scheduled for summer 2029
On the docket is a rebuild of Miwok Middle School, the district’s largest middle school and a popular choice during open enrollment.
The three-story building must come down, Ralston said. “It is at end of life,” he told the school trustees during a presentation to the school board last spring.
Miwok construction is slated to begin summer of 2029, a timeline Ralston said the district is still on track to follow.
How exactly a rebuild will affect seventh and eighth graders four years from now is still under discussion, he said.
“It really is a community conversation,” Ralston said.
“I could go out there and say, ‘Hey … let’s just put the kids over here,’” he added. “But the parents may say, ‘No, we want you to figure it out.’”
Doing so would add time to the project, Ralston said, since the demolition and rebuilding would then need to be done in phases instead of all at once. “But, you know, like I said, as long as it’s safe, I’ll do pretty much what the board is asking me to do, and the community works through the board.”
Community meetings expected in the spring
All ideas will be on the table next semester, when Ralston plans to meet with a wide net of families across the district and gather their input.
“I’m going to be visiting 25 elementary schools and other middle schools, because at some point they will be impacted somewhere, some way,” Ralston said. “If Miwok is closed, those kids have to go somewhere, so other schools will be impacted. If we stay open, there’ll still be impacts because there definitely will be parents that do not want to deal with construction.”
Jill Harris, whose daughter is a third grader at Sacramento City Unified, said her family recently moved to East Sacramento so her child could attend Miwok in four years.
Harris said she would prefer to see construction done in phases so her daughter and other students can still attend class on Miwok’s campus.
But, she said, if temporary displacement is the safer route, her main concern would then be keeping classmates and teachers from Miwok together at any alternate sites.
“It’s a very well regarded school, so I want her and all the kids to have the same curricula and opportunities,” Harris said.
She said it was reassuring that the district plans to hold community meetings and give parents a voice on the decision.
Initial work includes McClatchy pool, Will C. Wood renovation
The district has held such meetings already at other campuses for other projects.
In October, dozens of parents turned up at McClatchy High School to ask questions about the facilities team’s plan for the campus’s new competition pool.
And during a board meeting Thursday, facilities team member Matt Juchniewicz opened the floor for a public hearing regarding upgrades to Will C. Wood Middle School. There were no comments made that evening.
Operating on the fastest feasible timeline
Sacramento City Unified is already building at an accelerated pace, Ralston said.
The district faces a daunting operating budget dilemma, including possible insolvency as soon as June. Yet, these voter-approved bonds are guaranteed resources that allow the district to continue progress toward its construction goals.
And if they could go faster, Ralston said, they would. But, it’s not so simple.
“Just the amount of (construction) workforce in the county probably couldn’t handle 13 (projects) at once,” he said. “I know I couldn’t probably lead 13 at once.”
They are competing with other districts in Sacramento County that also recently passed building bond measures, including San Juan Unified and Folsom Cordova Unified.
Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.