At the Ross Valley School District meeting earlier this month, the school district board finally settled on pre-schematic designs for Measure A construction at Manor and Brookside Upper. The decision, which was delayed following concerns about inequity between the two schools, marks the end of the pre-schematic decisions for the elementary schools.

Measure A was passed in November 2010 to use bond funds to increase capacity at the schools and address overcrowding. Of the $50 million in construction, approximately $30 million will be spent to address the overcrowding issues at White Hill. The construction schedule at the middle school, which needs the most work, is ahead of the elementary school schedule and campus designs are closed to be submitted for state approval. Ground will be broken at White Hill this summer.

The decisions for pre-schematic design, which determines the basic layout of where buildings will go, were already made for Lower Brookside and Wade Thomas.

Decisions at Upper and Manor, though, were more complicated after parents raised concerns about funds and inequity. Decisions had to made on a timetable, though, for the district to apply for and receive matching state funds.

The option for Manor, which can be seen at right as Option E, places two classrooms at the front of the school and costs $1.4 million. A third, modular classroom was approved early because of higher than projected enrollment at the school and will be ready for use after President's Day.

The choice for Upper took the board more time because of the limitations of the topography of the campus. Eventually, the board settled on an option that will reconfigure an existing library and classrom building by the administration building into three Kindergarten classrooms with bathrooms. A new library building will be built near the front of campus and a last modular classroom will be placed in the back by the portables. The other portable will be replaced by a district-owned unit.

"This option was significantly less expensive than a similar option," said the district Board Briefs that go out to the community.

The Upper option will cost just over $2.8 million. Both options are within the planned budgets.

What do you think of the plans?