Facilities director navigating complex Park Place Middle School modernization project

The Monroe School District is gearing up for the modernization of Park Place Middle School, hiring Director of Capital Facilities Heidi Hansen to help transform the aging school into a safer and more cohesive learning center. -á -á

The implementation of a facilities-focused project management position is common practice for school districts that have passed a new bond. Passed this April, Monroe School District's $110.9 million bond measure will fund renovation and major maintenance projects across the district. Hansen will oversee all aspects of each project, from design and permitting to construction and occupancy.

Hansen has been a capital facilities management expert for nearly 20 years, managing capital projects for the Mukilteo and Arlington school districts.

"My role is to represent the district and to make sure that the whole program is constructed on budget, on time, and that it meets the educational specifications of the district,GÇ¥ Hansen said.

Being a woman in that type of position is rare, said the 46-year-old.

"It's more common than it used to be, but it's still primarily a male-driven industry,GÇ¥ Hansen said.

Park Place will be the district's most extensive endeavor. The multifaceted project will include demolition, new construction and modernization, and existing buildings will be tied together to create a more contiguous learning environment. The construction will begin in summer 2016 and continue through the school year. The project is estimated to take three summers and two school years to complete.-á

"There are certain complexities to this project that aren't generally found on most projects,GÇ¥ Hansen said. "So it's going to be a very interesting one to watch.GÇ¥

In order to help facilitate the process, the district will be using an alternative construction method known as General Contractor/Construction Manager, where the general contractor is selected early in the design stage to work with the design team and the architects through the entire process. This differs from the more common design/bid/ build method, where the general contractor is selected based on lowest bid after the design has been completed.

Because of the project's intricacies, the GC/CM method made the most sense, Hansen said.

"The GC/CM method is really advantageous for this project,GÇ¥ Hansen said. "This is the only one that's going to use that particular method. The rest will be the traditional design/bid/build.GÇ¥

Cornerstone General Contractors was selected in August from the eight firms that responded to the district's request for proposal.-á

Developing a plan for what the school will look like has been a collaborative effort and the details are still being finalized.

Shortly before the end of the school year, the district formed a Design Steering Committee consisting of Monroe School District staff, community volunteers, parents and members of the Monroe business community. The committee was tasked with reviewing Park Place Middle School modernization concepts completed in 2010, in order to determine if the ideas were still feasible. They challenged the old ideas based on updated data and conducted a visual survey of several recently built or modernized middle schools in neighboring communities.

The plans from 2010 were preliminary concepts that never made it through to the design process. When the 2010 bond measure failed at the ballot, the concepts were shelved. The committee performed extensive analysis on those preliminary ideas to determine the aspects that made sense and those that needed revision.

"We had proposed modernizing Park Place Middle back in 2010. At that time we'd come up with some concepts of how it might look, but it never got to the design phase,GÇ¥ said Monroe School District Director of Communications Rosemary O'Neil. "Those were concepts, and there wasn't much structural review. So this is a process that is much more in depth.GÇ¥-á

It was determined that certain aspects of the 2010 concepts would not be cost-effective. Others were proven to be impractical after closer examination of the school's physical structure. The guiding principles, however, remained consistent with the ideas developed in 2010. The committee wanted to incorporate clusters of classrooms for a connected learning environment, while developing a "heart of the schoolGÇ¥ located near the main entry.

The main entrance to the school will be centralized to create a safer environment, and the heart of the school will include things like the commons area, kitchen, library, lobby, administrative spaces and an after-school area.

The design includes specialized classrooms for science and art, with technological upgrades throughout. Shared learning areas will be incorporated throughout the clusters of classrooms, in order to enhance the school's capacity for educational activities. The shared multipurpose spaces will be available to classes wanting to offer joint programming, to accommodate things like guest speakers or special presentations.

There will be a covered play area, outdoor learning spaces, a track and athletic fields.-á

"They really wanted for the school to be conducive to education of children and efficient for the school and the taxpayers,GÇ¥ O'Neil said. "But they really want kids to enjoy being there.GÇ¥

Committee members were also mindful of aesthetics, so the current design proposal incorporates features that capitalize on Monroe's proximity to the Skykomish River.-á

"While architecture certainly is a structural thing, it's also about beauty and creativity,GÇ¥ O'Neil said. "They wanted to make sure that the school had some pleasing aesthetics.GÇ¥

The design development phase was only recently completed, and project details are still being refined. So far, nothing has been finalized. Construction will be ongoing while school is in session, so students will be temporarily relocated to portable classrooms on the west portion of the school property. Phase one involves removing the wing of classrooms located parallel to Main Street, with demolition occurring right after school gets out next June.

The new space will incorporate the clusters-of-classrooms concept and be multilevel.

Some buildings will remain intact, such as the gym, which will be completely renovated on the inside. Others will not be retained, like the current commons building, as it was determined to cost too much to repurpose. The library will stay, but likely will no longer be a part of the school's day-to-day operations. Similar to the commons, the library was determined to be too costly to repurpose, but its newness makes it feasible for other uses.

The library was added in the early 1990s. No decision has been made as to what its future use will be.-á

Hansen plans to use the library as classroom space during the construction process as a cost-saving measure that minimizes the necessary number of portables. She is formulating a plan to temporarily relocate students during the construction, and will be working to ease any potential disruption to students.

"It's going to be a very interesting project for the district to kick off with,GÇ¥ Hansen said.

In order to lessen the impact on students, the modernization efforts will take place over several phases. For more information about the Design Steering Committee proposal, visit www.monroe.wednet.edu/BOND/PPMS-Bond/PPMS_10-15-15.pdf.