Graham ISD looking at grade changes at elementary campuses

In June 2021, the Graham ISD Board of Trustees approved Huckabee Architects to conduct a facility study regarding a possible grade configuration change for elementary schools within the district. The report was given Wednesday to the board with potential grade configuration changes the district could pursue.

The Facility Assessment Report was compiled by the company on Pioneer Elementary School (early education, pre-k, kindergarten), Crestview Elementary School (first, second and third grades) and Woodland Elementary School (fourth and fifth grades). It includes the visual observations of the campus sites (building interiors, parking lots, playgrounds, etc.) and outlines the current conditions of those facilities from visual observations. The report was intended to outline the general conditions of each facility only by visual observations. The observations and assessment from the company included building codes, accessibility non-compliance and applicable general building conditions such as exterior materials and interior finishes.

The summary data was presented to the board Wednesday by Michael Morow of Huckabee Architects. Morow said all the data in the study is actually looking at the functional capacity of the campuses. A summary of the potential capacity showed that Pioneer has a max capacity of 350 students, a functional capacity of 314 students and currently enrolls 265. Crestview has a max capacity of 606 students, a functional capacity of 544 and a current enrollment of 463. Woodland has a max capacity of 388 students, a functional capacity of 348 and a current enrollment of 328.

“That was walking each of the campuses, seeing how each of the rooms are used, how they are being facilitated and seeing if there’s any opportunities to maximize that capacity a little bit more,” Morow said. “(...) obviously TEA sets the standards for size of rooms, number of students, what’s allowed, what can be counted and what can’t be counted for functional capacity.”

A cost summary was detailed by the company which included all of the deficiencies within each campus. Morow said the number was not a determining factor of what needs to be done currently at the campuses, but it is a culmination of accessibility, standard deficiencies such as maintenance items and other issues. The cost summary determined Pioneer at $335,000, Crestview at $800,000 and Woodland at $1.82 million.

“Looking at the dollars that it would cost for Woodland it gets to the point where then if you are going to spend that much money then you are just going to want to renovate the whole thing and then do you rethink how you are using that building for that function. Does it need to stay for fourth (and) fifth graders. With the capacity study on (...) all schools, but looking at the first two schools Pioneer and Crestview, we actually came up with two different options for realignment,” Morow said.

For the rest of the story, see the Nov. 13 edition of The Graham Leader.