District to demolish small gym, build classrooms
(LIZZIE PELZMAN / EYE OF THE TIGER)
The outside of RHS’ small gym. The district currently plans to demolish the small gym and build a two-story classroom building in its place.
October 14, 2019
After construction of the new gym is completed in 2020, RJUHSD plans to demolish the current small gym and build a two-story classroom building in its place, similar to the current 900’s buildings. At the September 24 board meeting, the district set the demolition as the second highest priority item for the construction projects that use the remainder of Measure D funds, right behind snack bar and playing field bathroom renovations across the district.
This classroom building will allow the district to remove the portable classrooms, which the district currently leases for over $100,000 a year, according to assistant superintendent of business services Joe Landon. The portables are currently located atop land that used to host tennis courts and parking. After the building is completed, the current plan is to turn this land back into tennis courts and parking.
“It gives us a lot more options as with the campus there’s really not a whole lot of space to make new parking or do [any of] that,” Landon said. “And there’s just a benefit to having a classroom building where all the teachers are in the same building as opposed to broken up in a lot of different portables.”
The inside of the current small gym. After its demolition, the district anticipates the construction of a new classroom building will allow it to remove the remaining portables and potentially turn that land into parking or tennis courts.
According to Principal Nicholas Richter, the planning stage for demolishing the small gym will begin after construction on the new auxiliary gym is complete. Currently, the auxiliary gym is set to be completed next semester – by spring at the earliest and by summer at the latest. Afterwards, the timeline for plans with the small gym will be more clear.
“With those timelines, even if they finish the gym there is still going to be a window where paperwork has to be done,” Richter said. “So it’s not like one will end and the other starts. The timelines are things that you can never really count on. You kind of finish one then you decide the timeline for the next one.”
Landon said he expects the demolition of the small gym and construction of the classroom building to take around the same amount of time as the construction of the auxiliary gym – around 12-18 months.
“It probably would be a roughly similar timeline of about a year, year and a half, of the construction I guess,” Landon said. “It depends on the detail and how much work we do. So once we get an architect on board and start going through that we’ll get a better idea of when the construction window is.”
According to superintendent Denise Herrmann, the design phase for the new project will start in the coming months. But, instead of having major construction continuous throughout the years at Roseville, Hermann said there will be a break between the completion of the new gym and the demolition of the old to finish planning and paperwork.
According to Landon, as of now the high estimate of the potential cost is $14,000,000, half from Measure D funds and half from state modernization matching funds. The cost will become more clear once the district gets deeper into plans for the project.
With the new construction plans underway, Herrmann said she wants to strike a balance between preserving the campus’ integrity and tradition and seeking innovative ways to improve the learning environment.
“I am excited to have this opportunity to continue to honor all of the beautiful and historic parts of the campus, but also blending the old and the new and making it a vibrant place for students to learn,” Herrmann said.
