Edna Maguire Won't Be Ready in the Fall — District to Extend School Day to Make December Move Work

Mill Valley School District officials were hoping the new Edna Maguire campus would be ready in time for the first day of school on Aug. 29, but inclement weather and delays in steel production have pushed that time-frame into the winter.

“The completion date has been revised to include a December 2013 move-in by the Edna Maguire staff prior to the Winter Recess,” Superintendent Paul Johnson said in a letter to the Edna Maguire school community.

Under a proposal that still needs approval by the Mill Valley School District board, students will get an extra week off from December 16 – 20 while staff completes the move. To compensate for the time off, the district will extend the school day by 12 minutes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for the entire school year.

"That will bank one extra week," said School Board President Leslie Wachtel. "It seems like the best decision for the teachers to move into their classrooms." 

The school day currently runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:50 p.m., and under this plan the dismissal time would be extended to 3:00 p.m. Recess would also be shortened by two minutes. The time change would not take place on Wednesdays, therefore not affecting the 1:45 p.m. early release.

After the classrooms have all been moved into the new campus, the interim campus will be dismantled during the two-week winter recess. The restoration of Alto Field and the completion of the new parking lot – where the interim campus is currently located – will start in January 2014, and will take between three to five months to complete, Johnson said.

"This way we'll be able to move the students, get the portables gone, and it will be a very clean transition," Wachtel said.

The district considered a staggered approach of moving the classrooms as sections were completed, but having to move students in the middle of construction is always difficult, Wachtel said. The district decided it made more sense to do it all at once without the students on campus to give teachers time to set up, and the students will return to new classrooms in January.

"I really applaud the flexibility of our administrative team and our teachers at Edna Magurie who are helping to make this all work," Wachtel said. "And I hope the school community is going to support it as well."

The $35 million reconstruction project is being funded by Measure C, a bond measure approved by voters in November 2009. The original plan was for the project to take between 15 to 18 months – with a goal of 15 – which meant the campus would have been ready for the start of school in the fall.

However, in March district officials expressed they were nervous that the new campus wouldn’t be completed in time. They put pressure on contractor Oveera Construction to speed up the process, but were in a wait-and-see mode up until mid-April, when Oveera provided a definitive move-in date of December.

The major hold-up had to do with steel production, which was expedited through four different metal fabrication facilities, but still wasn’t coming fast enough.

“We can erect steel faster than we can fabricate it,” district consultant Pete Norgaard said back in March. Heavy winter rains during the underground utilities and foundation work also contributed to the delay, and the district has had to allow additional time for architect plan submittals and required approval by the state, Johnson said.

Tim Ryan, the district’s director of maintenance and operation, said the project is currently very much on track for the December move-in date. The roof and exterior walls have gone up in the first and second grade buildings, and concrete has been poured in the gymnasium and academic buildings.

“We’ll be ready,” he said.

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