School is in session. The Santa Clara Unified Board of Trustees had a construction-themed meeting to discuss the Project Labor Agreement for Bracher Elementary School as well as pool construction at Santa Clara and Wilcox high schools.
Project Labor Agreement
At the Thursday, Aug. 22 meeting, the Board got a status update on the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) pilot. After years of discussion, the Board agreed to do the PLA pilot in March 2023 for the Bracher Elementary Modernization Project and compare it to the non-PLA Westwood Elementary Modernization Project of a similar scope.
Superintendent Dr. Gary Waddell warned the Board that the District is still very early in this process. CSEA President Lynn Villarreal cautioned the District not to rush the PLA process so it can have its best chance at success.
Board Member Dr. Michele Ryan recently completed the School Business Management program at the University of Southern California and did her in-depth study on PLAs. Dr. Ryan tried to suggest some specifics to include in the agreement to ensure they’re justifying the additional cost sometimes correlated with PLAs. The Board and community already highlighted that they want to hire locally and involve CTE students through apprenticeships. Dr. Ryan said they can specify these wishes through the PLA and even protect themselves during the bidding process. However, Board Vice President Bonnie Lieberman said it wasn’t their place to dictate the PLA. Deputy Superintendent of Operations and Chief Business Official Mark Schiel said that staff don’t necessarily need direction, but said they heard some good themes from the community. Schiel also shared that they are already in contact with the South Bay Labor Council.
Coming up, PLA negotiations will start soon and go until the end of 2024. The PLA will return to the Board for approval in January 2025 and then the bidding process will start in March 2025. If all goes well, the construction of underground utilities will begin in June 2025 and then the construction of buildings will start in September 2025.
Pool Makeovers
Probably everyone can agree that the Santa Clara and Wilcox high schools’ pools needed some TLC. Over the summer, Santa Clara Unified already replaced the boilers and installed new piping and vents. After water polo season, variable frequency drive pumps are going in, but they also discovered more work to do. The plaster and tiling are overdue to be replaced so they will have to replace the whole pool deck at both pools. Replacing the deck is a major project and means they are now required to do other work like ADA updates, replacing equipment and more which adds up to $3.2 million per pool.
Michal Healy, Director of Facility Development and Planning, also brought additional options for Board consideration. Both pools could get MUSCO Competitive Sport Lighting, new fencing and gates, outdoor showers, a shade structure over bleachers, and a new scoreboard adding up to $1 million per pool. Wilcox could also get acoustics treatment to help with noise and a visitor restroom. The restroom with a storage building is estimated to cost $5.6 million.
The Board gave directions to move forward with the must-haves and most of the additional options. However, they agreed the restroom was a bit pricey, so they only wanted it included if there was funding. Staff said they looking into funding sources and when this comes back to the Board, they will hopefully have more information.
Construction is expected to start in January 2026 and take six months per pool. Regarding pool downtime, Healy is speaking with the Santa Clara and Wilcox principals to decide if they want to stagger the construction or do both pools at once.
Other Business
The fee waiver request from the Santa Visits Alviso Foundation’s holiday event was approved. However, the group is also requesting liability insurance coverage from the District. Staff will gather more information about the insurance and come back to the Board.
The Board approved the appointment of Kent Johnson as the Vice-Principal at Cabrillo Middle School.
The Santa Clara Unified Board meets next on Thursday, Sept. 12. Meetings are live-streamed on the District’s YouTube page, and agendas are posted on their website.
