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George Washington Academy is expanding for 2010-2011 and beyond. Check here for updates on expansion issues. See construction photos.
June 23, 2010 In the last few days preparations were made to demolish the old house and to make room for temporary storage of the portable classrooms. The east end of the property is now graded, and today the house came down -- the first visible signs of progress towards expansion. Over the next month we will see a lot of grading, and the underground work needed prior to putting in the surface of our expanded parking lot. Updates on progress will be published on the web site, with accompanying pictures in our online photo album. ============== June 8, 2010 Progress is being made on construction though, unfortunately, none of it is visible or tangible at this time. As we work through the maze of permits and studies that must be done prior to breaking ground, we are firming up dates and plans for construction to begin. Our traffic study has been completed, and the only mitigation required is that we must install a left-turn lane from 3000 East to our property. This will be accomplished via striping the existing road, so the cost will be minimal. On the financial side, we expect to have our loan documents signed by the end of the week, so our construction team can get the various jobs out to bid. If we can stay on schedule, we should see work beginning mid-month. Of course none of this would mean anything if we didn't have teachers to head up our new classrooms, so our administrative staff have been busy interviewing and hiring to fill the new positions. Current openings are always listed under the "Employment" tab of this web site. ============== April 20, 2010 Our last update brought up the possibility of financing through a USDA-backed loan program. Unfortunately, after a brief inspection, it was determined that our property might be partially situated on a wetlands, making us ineligible for the program. We continue looking for alternate financing possibilities, as it is our strong desire to minimize the amount of time we must utilize the portable classrooms. Our Expansion Committee has grown slightly, but is still looking for many new members. Ideally we would have 20 or so people, but currently we have only five. If you would like to help shape the future of GWA and have time to participate, please contact
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and join this very important committee. The committee has already scored one major victory, in acquiring nearly 200 desks for the expansion at minimal cost. ============== March 31, 2010 No visible work has been done yet, but that doesn't mean there's nothing happening. Our Building Committee is currently looking for new members to take on some of the many tasks involved. Those with relevant skills or knowledge are invited to contact the committee chair (
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) to find out what they need and when they meet. Things have been tough this year on the financing front, but we had a hint of good news this week. It's possible the school may qualify under a USDA program for loans for development in rural areas. Our Business Administrator is following up, and will keep us apprised. If we do qualify, it's possible we could have our financing in place much sooner than previously thought. A big part of the expansion puzzle will be the logistics involved in effectively managing the traffic, people and construction when school begins in the fall. We all know that drop-off and pick-up can be a lengthy process at times, and with even more cars coming in, keeping things moving will be critical. We are currently looking for people interested in being part of our Expansion Committee, charged with addressing these and many other expansion related issues. If you'd like to be involved with this team, please contact
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. We hope to formally create this committee at our meeting next week, and to appoint a Chair at that time. ============== Update from March 17, 2010 During the 2008-2009 school year, a hard look at our financial situation indicated that it would be necessary to expand our student population to not only adequately manage our ongoing debt, but also to increase the amount of discretionary income available to use for our administration, teachers and students. At that time, we petitioned the Utah State Charter Board to allow an increase, and were told we would be allowed to expand to an overall headcount of 1025 students (more than twice our current 500). Since early 2009, we have been exploring options available to us for expanding our facility and staff to meet the demands we would face at that size, without compromising our commitment to educational excellence or the sense of common purpose we feel as members of a charter school community. The focus of our efforts is, and has been, to provide a facility to comfortably house our students and staff, without endangering our financial stability, either now or in the future. To this end, several expansion ideas have been considered (e.g. a separate building for middle school, extended use of our portables). After working through all of the possibilities, we have settled on expanding our current building in two or three phases, depending on available financing. Current plans (again, finances permitting) are to extend the northwest corner of the school to hold another ten classrooms, and to add a commons area (for lunches, dances, etc.) and a two-story middle school wing on the southeast end of the building. Upon completion, the building would be capable of holding five classrooms each of grades K - 6, and three classrooms each (or 4/2) for grades 7-8, including a dedicated science classroom and a CTE center. As we move forward and try to secure financing, we are finding that temporary use of our portables may be required to reach this goal. We realize this is not an ideal situation but, if it becomes necessary, we will do our best to make sure their use is for as short a time as possible. Within the past few months, RFPs have been issued for an architect and for construction. After examining the proposals submitted, we ultimately selected VCBO for architectural services, and Hughes Construction for the build-out. A current site plan (as of March 10, 2010) is online here: http://www.gwacademy.org/gwasite/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=57 |
