The board unanimously approved a guaranteed maximum price of more than $3 million for the project during its March 28 meeting. District officials said the total project budget is estimated to be $3,822,704.
The renovation project includes new flooring throughout the campus, repainting in corridors and the cafeteria, wall tile in corridors, new lighting and a new ceiling in corridors and the cafeteria, according to district officials.
Eight classroom renovations are planned to incorporate PASS programming needs, with one group restroom expected to be renovated in the PASS area. In addition, the school’s music room will have its floor repaired and have additional sound proofing.
According to the district website, the Positive Approaches to Student Success program provides special education students who demonstrate “significant behavioral and emotional challenges” with a unique learning environment that focuses on individualized positive and negative consequence systems.
“We have several centralized special education programs that are uniquely designed for the needs of our special education students,” RISD interim Superintendent Tabitha Branum said. “That is specifically students who may need additional support for behavior issues and are learning how to deal with and identify that behavior.”
The renovation project also includes system upgrades that were identified in the 2021 bond program.
Part of that program is incorporating open, flexible classrooms where students can move between classrooms without doors and complete walls, Branum said.
“We are looking to renovate some open classroom areas to utilize some additional space toward the behavioral needs of students who need some reset time in restrooms and classrooms where necessary,” Assistant Superintendent Sandra Hayes said. “Big Springs is like some of our other schools, where we have big circular windows, and they have two different levels. We need to level that out to make it [Americans with Disabilities Act-]accessible.”
The primary goal of PASS is to improve academic and behavioral results for students to be gradually transitioned back into “general education settings,” according to the company’s website. Other schools in the district also send students to Big Springs Elementary School to participate in the program.
