"As we've looked at adding an addition, we're looking at adding on to the southwest of the building," said Lisa Kassman, executive director of facilities, planning and construction. "This allows us to add additional classrooms of six kindergarten and six pre-K classrooms. It also allows us to reorganize the existing spaces into the groupings of classrooms that we can group by grade. ... This also will free up for outdoor space and allow that playground space that Principal [Charlotte] Gilder has been looking for."
According to the presentation, project goals include minimizing portables on campus; bringing all students into the existing building and the new addition to provide a safe route for students to access the playground from the cafeteria; to increase the amount of safe outdoor play space for students; to rethink interior groupings of classrooms; and to provide pre-K classrooms that meet the needs of students and teachers.
"Our goal is to minimize portables," KISD Chief Operations Officer Ted Vierling said. "There may be a couple that stay out there for staffing purposes in terms of a place for speech therapists to do paperwork and things like that. So I can't promise that we'll get rid of everyone, but our goal and in going through this and working closely with Ms. Gilder is to is to get the kiddos inside the building OK."
Additionally, the current portables will be moved to another KISD campus, officials said. According to presentation documents, the next step in the process is the presentation of the bid to the board of trustees, which will occur July 25. The renovations should be completed by August 2023.
