The Directors, MPCS GC, Master Planning, 5B Committee, and Foundation continue to look ahead to the future growth of the MPCS campus.
As you may know, with the passage of 5B in Jeffco, MPCS was allotted $3.1 million towards building improvements and construction. During the 19/20 school year, we partnered with SA+R Architects to develop a capital construction plan in two phases. We initially planned Phase 1 for summer 2020 to renovate the Great Hall, Art and Music rooms into first and second grade classrooms in place of temps as well as to build two SIPPS structures or yurts in the Games field to temporarily house the Music program and serve other programs in the future and Phase 2 for Fall 2020 to construct a new 8,000 sq ft multipurpose building. We also planned to use $155,000 of the Foundation budget this summer towards starting construction on the ECE playground designed in collaboration with Urban Play Studios and the ECE team between 2018-2020.
Like many other plans, however, the Covid pandemic has changed our approach and timeline.
Immediately, it was clear that the changing state budget would impact MPCS’s budget, and at the advice of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, we froze spending on any school budgeted capital improvements. Consequently, we have had to postpone receiving bids for the first phases of ECE playground construction in order to keep Foundation funds available for possible Covid or 5B construction costs that may arise. This does not mean that the ECE playground design, construction and fundraising has been left behind; rather, we want to approach the timeline mindfully, given our current financial unknowns.
The 5B construction monies are guaranteed and must be spent by November 2021. While we look forward to the campus improvements this will provide, we decided to slightly adjust this timeline to take a more conservative approach and engage construction firms with the ability to bid both phases of the 5B project. Our goal is to have little to no impact on our school’s reserve fund, in order to save our reserve money for future state budgetary impacts. By gaining more clarity on the cost of both phases of the project, we will be able to better steward the 5B funding that we are so grateful for. The new timeline we are working with will still allow Phase 1 construction to begin this summer but rather than be complete this summer, it will be completed Fall 2020. The largest impact on our community is that first and second graders for school year 2020-21 will begin school in The Cottages and transition into their new classrooms during the school year.
We look forward to the continued campus improvements. We hope sharing conceptual drawings of building renovations excites you, as well!
(The following images may be hard to see, so please zoom in or try to view be opening the images that are attachdd to this post. Please note that the following images are subject to change.)