Woody Creek, Colorado

 

for BEST Grant Application

Revised 03-23-10

 

 

Prepared by:

 

Compass

Skye Skinner

970-923-4646

skye@discovercompass.org

 

and

 

CCY Architects, Ltd.

Robin Schiller

970-927-4925

 

 

 

 

 

Facility Master Plan for the Aspen Community School, Woody Creek, Colorado

 

This document pertains to the facilities of the Aspen Community School (hereinafter referred to as ‘ACS’), a K-8 public charter school of the Aspen School District (hereinafter referred to as ‘District’). The school is located on a rural mesa in Woody Creek, approximately 8 miles from Aspen. The main curricular functions of the school are housed in an approximately 8000 sf two-story log building constructed in 1972 and added onto several times since then. Students also utilize a nearby gymnasium building (in which the library, computer lab and special education classroom are located), a small straw bale building used for visual arts instruction, and another small wood-framed building currently used for music instruction.  

 

ACS was founded as a private school in 1970 and converted to a charter school in 1995. ACS is fully enrolled each year with 127 students and a waitlist often in excess of 100. Though located within the boundaries of the Aspen School District, 70% of students reside outside of the District in: Glenwood Spring; Basalt; Carbondale; Meredith; Marble and Redstone. ACS enjoys a positive relationship with the District and provides an educational choice which is strongly desired in the community.

The Space Needs Assessment prepared at the start of this process indicates that the current spaces are undersized by nearly 50% from what is required for optimum academic effectiveness. Particular deficiencies include lack of lunch space, lack of proper rest rooms and food service, undersized central meeting space, inadequate teacher preparation space. In addition, the location of the library in a separate building and next to the gym, where its use is compromised by noise transfer, is one of many dysfunctional adjacency and configuration issues. The spaces themselves are, in many cases, compromised by low headroom, poor daylighting, surfaces which are difficult to use for teaching materials or to clean, grossly inadequate ventilation, very poor insulation and resulting thermal comfort, and excessive noise transfer. Remediating these conditions in the existing spaces would require replacing or rebuilding nearly every building system. Doing so would result in many months of disruption to the educational process and would cost more than the proposed replacement building.

 

In addition to the building issues, the current site configuration results in serious and dangerous conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians. The County, in previous land use actions to legitimize the school and its services, has noted that the access road, water service, sanitary waste treatment and other systems do not meet current requirements and has conditioned any new construction on the site on remediating these conditions. The Master Plan process has included conceptual level design of such remediation and it is included in the Master Plan.

 

 

I.3        Strategic Plan for Implementation – The Five Year plan for remedying all the deficiencies noted is to construct a new school building on the existing site. The plan further anticipates accomplishing this new construction in a series of steps – relocate existing gym, then construct new school, then reduce and refurbish remaining portion of existing school before moving music functions in there – which are calculated to allow education to continue uninterrupted with minimal disruption and to re-use as much as possible of the existing buildings, to better purpose.  

I.4        Conclusion – The Master Plan described herein represents the most direct and most cost-efficient means to mitigate the many dysfunctional conditions of the current site and buildings. It will ensure the Aspen Community School can provide a safe and effective teaching facility for decades to come.

II.1       History - Founded in 1970 as a private elementary school, ACS has a long history of providing quality, progressive K-8 education. In 1995, ACS became a public charter school  The conversion from private to public charter resulted from ACS’ desire to open attendance to a broader range of students by eliminating tuition that many families could not afford.

 

The primary mission of ACS is to prepare students to move successfully into high school and college with a strong academic foundation, healthy interactive skills, and a commitment to ethical judgment and responsibilities. The school uses a student-centered model, which combines teacher-led instruction with abundant opportunities for children to initiate and complete their own projects.

 

The ACS goal is to have each student take responsibility for his/her own learning, and to ensure that students remain inquisitive, independent, and self-motivated learners using standard academic guidelines. Students set academic goals with their parents and teachers, and demonstrate progress toward achieving these goals in their portfolio, which serves as the student’s academic record. Students are also required to take all standardized tests as required by the Colorado Department of Education.

 

Teachers design curriculum that integrates subjects and allows students to find personal meaning in each topic. ACS uses broad questions that help bring all of the subjects together into a unified whole, allowing for the design of hands-on activities that bring meaning to individual subjects through projects and exhibits. Our Social-Emotional curriculum is designed to build skills in team building, decision-making, and healthy relationship development.

 

The atmosphere of the school is welcoming and nurturing. If not in an academic class, students may be working in small groups, reading, working on computers, or choosing to work as apprentices with local businesses or artisans. Parents provide program support as classroom volunteers or by serving on school committees. Teachers enjoy an open door policy with administrators who provide support with educational program needs and disciplinary challenges. Through the School Advisory Council, parents, teachers and administrators are heard and honored in policy making and daily operating procedures. 

 

ACS strives to create a positive environment for learning and growing. Research shows that we are meeting our goals. Studies of ACS demonstrate that our graduates are curious, independent, self-directed high school and university students, as well as active leaders in their communities.

 

 

II.2       Location – ACS is located on a rural mesa in Woody Creek, approximately 8 miles from Aspen.   The nearest other public schools are those of the District: Aspen Elementary School, Aspen Middle School and Aspen High School. Colorado Mountain College, a 2 year community college, maintains activities in a building on the edge of Aspen, about seven miles away. There are no other higher education institutions in the valley.

 

The school is located at approximately 7620 feet above sea level, in a high desert ecosystem characterized by open meadows and scrub-oak and pinon pine on sun-exposed slopes, aspen groves in sheltered or moisture-holding areas, and coniferous forests on north facing and higher slopes. This climate experiences long winters which , while cold, also offer abundant clear weather and sunshine. Snow covers much of the ground from November through early April, and can fall in any month of the year. Winds are variable, with regular catabiatic flows down valleys in the morning and up valleys in the afternoons, although weather movement around peaks and ridges can result in significant gusts from unpredictable directions.

 

The site itself is mostly open rangeland, with some trees around the existing buildings and in a draw which runs partway up the site. It offers excellent southerly exposure for solar power, which is anticipated in the proposed project. An irrigation pond on the site is proposed to be the source for a geothermal heating system (with boiler backup in case the pond is required to be drawn down for water rights requirements). The beetle-kill problem which has greatly affected similar regions to the east has not been so significant here, so there is not a significant biomass of affected trees which might be used for energy generation.

II.3      District Demographics –  Approximately 30% of the students attending ACS reside in the Aspen School District (Pitkin County), with the remaining 70% residing in the Roaring Fork School District (Garfield County). Therefore, the area served encompasses both Districts, and is most accurately described as the Roaring Fork Valley - a geographical region in western Colorado defined by the valley of the Roaring Fork River and its tributaries. The valley includes the communities of Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale, Redstone, Marble, Meredith and Glenwood Springs. The valley extends for approximately 50 miles southeast to northwest from Aspen northwest to Glenwood Springs at the mouth of the Roaring Fork on the Colorado River. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides, in particular on its southwest edge by the high Elk Mountains that are location of the popular Aspen/Snowmass ski resorts. Mount Sopris dominates the lower (northwest) end of the valley.

The main economic engine of the valley is the Aspen/SnowmassThe recession and a lack of snow early in the ski season have translated into flat or lower revenue for resorts and nearby businesses this season and last. Resort-based economies are suffering as tourism declines. recreational skiing complex which directly or indirectly drives the related tourism, hospitality, retail, construction, real estate, professional service and property maintenance industries. Although skiing forms the foundation of the economy, other activities contribute to visitor numbers. Non-winter recreational and cultural activities such as fly fishing and whitewater rafting, conferences, music festivals, and other cultural events attract visitors year-round.

The valley has grown rapidly in recent years, not only in the vicinity of Aspen, but notably in the lower end of the valley below Basalt. The communities of Basalt and Carbondale have served as bedroom communities for day workers in Aspen, where high property values have increasingly strained the ability of low- and middle-income workers to afford the cost of living.

The cost of living in the Roaring Fork Valley must be taken into consideration when evaluating median household incomes. The cost of living in Pitkin County is 664% higher than the U.S. average, with a median household income of $72,000. The cost of living in Garfield County is 54% higher than the U.S. average, with a median household income of $67,000. It is noteworthy that there is a cost of living difference of 610% between Aspen and Glenwood Springs, which are only 50 miles apart.)

 

 

 

III.1      Educational programming and adequacy - The Colorado model content standards are integrated into four core subjects taught daily at ACS:

As detailed in Section III.2, the current facilities are deficient in meeting the educational program needs. Originally built for 80 students, there are now 122 enrolled in the school (with 127 the maximum currently allowed under County land-use regulations, and 135 the maximum which might ever be considered suitable for the program, if allowed by County and District).

 

III.2      Complete Inventory of facilities owned or leased by the charter school

The Aspen Community School is located in the Woody Creek area, 8 miles from Aspen, on a piece of property donated to Compass, a not-for-profit foundation which operates the Aspen Community School. Compass also operates the Early Childhood Center, a pre-school located on the same campus with the ACS, as well as the Carbondale Community, located in the town of Carbondale, approx. twenty miles away.   These are the only facilities owned or operated by ACS or Compass.

 

Following is a description of the various buildings on the campus (note: ‘CDE- AR’ refers to the Assessment Report compiled last year under the direction of the Department of Education):

                                   

 

 

The following are highlights of the facility’s condition. More detail may be found in the CDE Revised Draft School Assessment Report, dated 03-01-10 and in the Audit of Building Envelope and HVAC Systems, prepared by Resource Engineering Group. Unless noted otherwise, the comments below pertain to the ACS Main Building.  

            1. Code Compliance – The most glaring code compliance issue for this school is the lack of accessibility to persons with mobility impairments. The school’s main entrance is on grade with minimally non-compliant thresholds, but only the vestibule, administrative office, principal’s office and the floor of the Central Area (main meeting space) are on that level. Class spaces serving K, 1-2, and 508 grade levels are located in two separate pods, each of which is up six steps from this level. The spaces serving 3-4 grade level, as well as the only rest rooms in the building, are located down a longer flight of steps. Mitigating this situation might include adding two ramps (each at least 36’ long) to access the upper areas or two lifts, plus an elevator or another lift to access the lower.

            Virtually all doors in the facility do not provide the required clearance for wheel chairs. In some case, such as bathrooms, the configuration of walls would not allow larger doors to be installed. The rest rooms themselves are far from large enough to meet required clearances for accessibility. In addition, the lack of separate rest rooms for Kindergarten, sick room and adult staff, are in violation of standards for educational facilities.

            The Fire District which covers this site currently requires all buildings over 5000 sf to have a sprinkler system, due to the rural nature and resultant response time.  The existing facility is over that size and does not have such a system.

            The lack of positive ventilation system(s) is another code deficiency, and applies not only to the main building, but also the gym and especially to the current art teaching space, an unheated straw-bale structure a short distance from the main building. While operable windows address this to some degree, their use is limited during winter months in such a harsh high-altitude climate. The CDE assessment measured high levels of carbon dioxide in the main building which are likely a result of this lack of ventilation on days when the weather is not conducive to opening multiple windows. 

 

2. Major Systems –

 

                  a.  Site – Pitkin County (the local authority having jurisdiction over the Compass Campus and the ACS site) has placed conditions on prior land-use actions such that, before any new alterations or construction may be done, the following systems must be brought into compliance:

                        1. Driveway – does not meet minimum twenty-foot width required for fire vehicle access; slope is steep and dangerous during frequent snowy and icy conditions. Exiting dirt surface requires constant maintenance. Project proposes to increase width, moderate the steep slope, improve drainage and improve surface durability.

                        2. Sanitary Waste Treatment —replace existing aged and undersized underground treatment fields with a system meeting engineering standards. The estimated daily volumes requiring treatment (over 500 gpd) place the system under the jurisdiction of the State rather than the County.

                        3. Employee Housing – The County will require that any project provide housing (to the satisfaction of the local Affordable Housing Authority) for at least four employees. While the cost of providing such housing is not being applied for under the BEST program, the Master Plan envisions where and how this requirement might be met, since it will be a prerequisite for moving forward.

                        4. Water supply – water for the campus is provided by a single well. In order to legitimize this service for the number of actual users on the campus, an Augmentation Agreement with the State Water Authority was entered into over a year ago. This agreement requires significantly increased water storage to meet possible calls and for fire suppression. Domestic water storage and treatment also need to be improved to meet current standards, as well as the addition of a second well or pump to avoid loss of potable water in the event of equipment failure. The County has identified compliance with this agreement as another pre-condition for new construction or alterations.

                        5. Pedestrian/vehicular safety, while not specifically a County remediation requirement, is another deficiency of the current site arrangement.   Currently all vehicles (buses, teacher and staff vehicles, parent vehicles) arrive on the same driveway and utilize the same parking areas. This vehicular circulation is directly adjacent to, and with no separation from, areas where students (including those of an associated pre-school) walk, creating a dangerous and congested situation. In addition, several of the walkways connecting various structures on the campus are steep and subject to solar melting followed by afternoon shade, resulting in frequent icy and dangerous walking conditions. 

 

b. Envelope - The most glaring deficiency in the ACS’s building systems is the exterior envelope, which consists primarily of stacked-log walls, approximately 8“ in thickness, giving an estimated insulating value of R-6 to R-8, versus the minimum of R-19 which is required by current codes. These walls are also a very porous barrier to air movement, resulting in spaces frequently described as drafty and cold in faculty interviews. In addition, large portions of the upper walls are devoted to a simple daylighting system of clerestories which are not actual windows, but rather consist of sheets of translucent corrugated fiberglass panels attached to the interior and exterior faces of 2 x 4 stud framing, allowing far more infiltration and heat loss than would even a moderately well-specified modern window assembly. The main roof has an estimated R-9 roof system, some small additions an estimated R-15, compared to the current code minimum of R-38 (and common local practice of insulating to around R-50 to reduce ice damming and other problems).

 

                  c. Structure - While there are no current acute structural failings (major cracking, gross sagging, breakage) there are two obvious remedial beams (about 24’ long) which have been added to main log arches in the Central Area. These suggest that the original construction was not adequate for snow loading, an idea which is consistent with bowing visible in at least one of the main log walls. In the event the roof assemblies were to be insulated to current standard, it is to be expected that less snow would be melted off due to heat loss, leading to increased snow loading and very possibly increased failure of the structure. A full structural analysis is expected to indicate that additional steel or other reinforcements would need to be installed in such a case.

 

                  d. Roofing -  The system passed beyond its 20 year service life in 2009 and is showing signs of deterioration.

 

                  e. HVAC – The building’s boiler is original (from 1972) and is believed to be running well below its original 78% efficiency. Heat is distributed by a poorly zoned system of baseboards which are also in poor condition, resulting in an estimated 40 to 50% overall efficiency and little more than on/off control. There is no mechanical ventilation system.

 

                  f.    Plumbing – The building has only one small restroom for girls, and one for boys; with no other accommodations for staff or Kindergarteners. Neither restroom meets accessibility dimensions. The fixtures themselves are functional but quite old, require frequent maintenance, and do not meet accessibility standards, even if the required clearances could be achieved.

 

                  g. Electrical  - The system is beyond its 30 yr. life. There are inadequate number and placement of outlets, resulting in extensive use of extension cords and plug strips. Surface wiring has been added in places to address need. Capacity for phone and data service is seriously lacking. Lighting in many areas is via bare-bulb fixtures which have been retro-fitted with compact fluorescent lamps but have no lenses, reflectors or other light controlling features. Combined with dark interior wall surfaces, this results in high-glare, very high-contrast light situations, especially when snow on the ground makes windows and clerestories extra bright. 

 

                  h. Finishes – Much of the interior wall surface is the exposed face of log construction. While these originally had bark on them, most of it was removed some years ago to combat insect infestation. These walls show wear and the effects of years of attaching fixtures and materials to them. Their rough surface limits use for curricular purposes, and also makes them very difficult to clean or refinish. Floors are a combination of concrete, wood plank and carpet, also very worn and difficult to keep clean. Ceilings are, for the most part, the exposed underside of the roof or floor structure above, with exposed beams. In many of the classrooms the ceilings slope down to 5’-4” in height, in two to as little as 4’-6”, limiting use and resulting in frequent head-banging injuries.

 

                  i. Water Quality – Water is provided by an on-site well. As noted in the ‘Site’ section above, improvements to this are required by an Agreement with the State Water Authority which was necessary to legitimize the right to this use.

 

                  j. Air Quality – The main air quality deficiency is a lack of continuous ventilation. This is experienced in the art building (which has no mechanical ventilation and no central heat - it is warmed by use of plug-in electric devices) as the noticeable smells of various art materials. Some activities must take place outdoors due to these deficiencies, and off-gassing of art supplies and works is uncontrolled.  In the main building the lack of ventilation results in high CO2 levels (as measured by the CDE-AR), and in the gym is evident in the stuffy sweaty atmosphere during use.  

                 

                  k. ADA Accessibility – As noted above under code Compliance, the facility is not at all accessible, with every classroom reached via stairs and virtually every door undersized. Railings, door hardware, restrooms and stalls, etc. all reflect a facility which was constructed before accessibility standards were mandated.

 

                  k. Furnishings and Equipment – Furnishings and equipment, being subject to replacement over the years on an incremental basis, are somewhat more serviceable than the building itself. That said, most fixtures, furnishings and equipment are of low durability and well-worn.

 

            C. Safety

 

            1. Students, staff, visitors – The pedestrian/vehicular safety issues have been noted above, under ‘Site.’ Other than that, the natural landscape of much of the site

            2. Secure from unwanted intruders – The school’s main protection from intruders is its remote and inconspicuous location. Should an intruder with to enter however, the rustic nature of the building and spread-out nature of its facilities suggest s it would be quite vulnerable to forced entry.

            3. Egress – There are a number of doors to the exterior from various spaces, meaning that egress from all but the 5-8 grade areas would be readily accomplished. The 5-8 areas are on an elevated level with only one path of egress, thru the Central Area. In the event of a fire in that space, occupants of the 5-8 areas would likely have to use windows to escape to the ground about 12’ below, or to be rescued.

            4. Lock-down ability – There is no central access control or monitoring system; lock-down could be effected by manually locking about half a dozen doors located all around the perimeter.

            5. Evacuation Ability – Due to the large number of doors to the exterior, evacuation of students form classrooms in the K, 1-2, and 3-4 grade levels is readily accomplished. The 5-8 level spaces would take a little longer exiting toward the center of the building before exiting, but given its small dimensions, this would still be fairly quick, unless the cause for evacuation were in that Central Area thru which they must pass.

            6. Safety Systems

                  a. Fire alarms  - only the pre-school and dormitory buildings are monitored and have sprinklers. The main ACS and the gym have alarms which annunciate but do not communicate to the Fire District or anyone else. Other buildings have only portable fire extinguishers.

                  b. Phones and intercoms – The school has a very basic 9-line phone system which is used also as an intercom system but has no capacity to contact spaces which do not have a phone, such as hallways, restrooms, etc.

                  c. Locks – manually operated cylinder locks, no common-master keying system.

                  d. Parent and bus drop-off/pick-up of students – As noted above under site, the current condition is congested and dangerous, with walking students un-separated from arriving and departing vehicles, and approaching idling school buses through their exhaust stream.

            7. Hazards

                  a. Asbestos – there is no known asbestos in any of the buildings, and the original architects have provided letters documenting that they did not specify any asbestos. An on-site hazardous material survey will be required prior to any demolition or remodeling.

                  b. Lead based paints were still in use when this building was first constructed, in 1972 (federal ban on lead-based paints in housing dates to 1978) so it is possible they may have been used, however, since much of the interior consists of exposed unfinished structure, the extent, if any, would necessarily be limited. An on-site hazardous material survey will be required prior to any demolition or remodeling.

                  c. Mold – there have been no reported mold issues in the school, which has few concealed spaces and is located in a relatively cold, dry climate.

      d. Dangerous Conditions – In addition to the comments above, water supply for fire suppression is currently questionable due to freezing of the small pond and limited hydrant or standpipe availability.   Headroom at the stair to the 3-4 grade areas is well-below 6’ at the bottom riser, resulting in frequent head-bonks. 

     

 

The ACS is a stable institution with excellent relations to its parent District. It serves an area with moderately growing population and a demonstrated desire for educational options.

 

The ACS’s current facilities are worn, rustic and far from meeting current standards for high-performance school facilities. They are overcrowded due to increase in student count over their nearly forty-year life span. The site itself offers tremendous natural context and separation for incompatible uses, but is burdened with sub-standard access and infrastructure. 

 

Through a series of steps – Space Needs Assessment, faculty and staff interviews, existing building assessment and community input sessions - a  Master Plan has been developed which proposes to replace the existing main ACS building with a new structure and remediate, rehabilitate and repurpose several smaller buildings to create a new school facility which will be high-performing, meet current and projected space needs, and reduce energy use and maintenance costs.

 

The attached Proposed Timeline illustrates the steps and sub-projects envisioned to accomplish this Master Plan. 

 

As the timeline shows, it is anticipated that Scope I & II activities can be accomplished by the middle of 2015 if BEST funding is awarded in the 2010 cycle and becomes available in early 2011. This is a general timeline only, and will certainly be adjusted as the project moves forward. Contractor involvement, hiring of an Owner’s Representative, and funding procedures will all affect the detailed schedule, which will be adjusted to better reflect seasonal conditions as other project parameters become more resolved.

 

The Cost Estimate Outline (attached) depicts the estimated hard costs for Scopes I, II and III, as well as for various buildings and elements of the site work within each. Soft costs, contingencies and escalations are applied to each Scope as well and can be extrapolated as desired for specific buildings or site elements.

 

In the spring of 2009 we engaged The Compass Group to conduct a fundraising feasibility study to gauge the realism of the fundraising effort required to realize our long-term goals. Initially those goals were broad, and included improvements to our preschool and our Carbondale Community School, along with raising endowment funds. The results of the study were presented in January, 2010, and made it clear that we need to take smaller steps toward our goals, starting with a capital campaign focused on the Aspen Community School. The study took our pending BEST application into consideration and stressed that BEST funding would be a critical “lead gift” in our campaign. A BEST grant would provide the leverage needed to raise the 40% match. Board, staff and volunteers have been developing campaign materials and strategies for approaching major donors and foundations. Though raising 40% of the total funds required to rebuild ACS will be an ambitious and intense effort, we are optimistic that it is possible – based largely on our 40 year history and deep roots in the community.

 

 

ACS is dedicated to maintaining an adequate annual budget for all care, maintenance and grounds keeping of the existing school buildings as well as the future buildings. This dedication is demonstrated by the current annual Maintenance and Operations (O&M) Budget:

Buildings and Grounds:         $19,000

Maint. Personnel & Vehicle: $21,225

Janitorial:                              $19,679

Utilities:                                 $17,500

ACS also contributes $10,000 annually to a reserve fund. At the end of June 2010 the reserve fund will have a total of $30,000.

 

According to the American School and University Magazine, 32^nd Annual M&O Cost Study, April 2003, for schools under 1,000 students, the national average for the total annual M&O budget is $629.22 per student. ACS can demonstrate that over the last three years we have committed $634.46 per student. Adding $10,000 annual contribution to the capitol reserve account, or $81.97 per student, the total real contribution to M&O annually is a demonstrated $716.43, or approximately 12.5% higher than the national average.

 

In terms of Facilities Management in regard to the future buildings which are still in schematic design only, ACS intends to implement the following strategies:

ü      ACS will employ a staff of one for all M&O programs. This staff will receive six (6) months of on-going training at the beginning of operations. Included in part of this training will be all teachers, administration and staff to ensure a widespread understanding of the new high performance systems.

ü      Maintenance personnel, in cooperation with the general contractor, relevant sub contractors and a commissioning agent will create and maintain a standardized structure for maintenance, operations, custodial work and grounds keeping.

ü      The standardized structure mentioned above will include CO-CHPS recommended practices and procedures to address on a quarterly, bi-annual and annual basis the following areas of concern:

o       Health and Indoor Air Quality

o       Thermal Comfort

o       Visual Comfort

o       Acoustic Comfort

o       Security and Safety

o       Ecosystem Protection

o       Energy Efficiency

o       Water Efficiency

o       Materials Efficiency

o       Buildings as a Teaching Tool

 

ACS will require, in all RFQ’s for contractors and sub contractors, a demonstrated commitment to and understanding of modern, high performance systems.

 

ACS has registered this project with CO-CHPS and intends to follow all guidelines therein in an effort to gain the validation on all new and existing buildings.

 

Section V – ConclusionV.1          Master Plan Process –

 

The process that led to this Master Plan has been extensive and began almost 8 years ago. In February 2002, on the brink of closure, precipitated by the transition from a founder/executive director to new leadership, we developed a comprehensive strategic plan in order to strengthen all aspects of the organization: daily operations; personnel management; leadership; fundraising; board development; financial stability; land use and future facilities.

 

Over the course of the next five years we methodically and successfully accomplished the extensive goals and organizational reform set forth in the strategic plan, with the exception of facility improvements. We managed to keep our focus on the educational program and the student experience throughout this arduous process.

 

In October 2007 our finances had stabilized and operations were consistently secure. At that point a Campus Planning Committee (CPC) was formed comprised of representatives of staff, board and interested parents with a background in design and construction. Their task was to  develop the most appropriate solution to the ACS’s facility needs and to initiate a physical master planning process. This began with interviews of faculty, staff and students to determine what does and does not work well about the existing facilities. In order to provide a comprehensive plan for the foreseeable future, these investigations considered not only the ACS buildings, but the entire campus. 

 

Next, a Space Needs Assessment was begun, including tabulation of existing facilities and projection of the desired spaces and areas based upon educational methods, programs and interview comments Once a draft of the Space Needs was available, the CPC held a selection process to find the most suitable design team to create the actual Master Plan. From a field of over a dozen responding teams, five were short-listed and invited to submit full proposals. From that process the team led by CCY Architects, and including Mt. Daly Enterprises (landscape and planning) Resource Engineering Group (energy and HVAC engineering) and Sopris Engineers (civil and infrastructure engineering) was selected.

 

CCY and CPC then instigated a series of Community Input Meetings, their agendas progressing from: compilation and review of project vision and criteria; review of a range of physical site plan solutions; selection of two solutions which had the most merit; and finally, presentation of a single physical design solution, developed based upon the input received at those meetings. 

 

Simultaneous with the Community process, CCY reviewed and digested available documentation, including the CDE-AR and previous planning documents. The Space Needs Assessment was further reviewed and refined, and was eventually tailored to the proposed locations for various functions and re-use of existing buildings. This Space Needs supports expansion from the existing 8000 sf main ACS building to the proposed 11,659 sf new ACS building (not including Gym/ Community Hall, Music and Visual arts spaces) to fully serve the school’s needs for the present and foreseeable future. The facility options presented in the Community Input Meetings addressed this need, illustrating expansion/rehabilitation of the existing building in several configurations as well as various possible locations and configurations for a new building which might replace the existing.

 

As these options were being developed and reviewed, CCY was making its own investigations into the condition of the existing buildings (see separate Existing Building Review, by REG). Based on these, and the program, scheduling and site considerations which came out of the input and design efforts, it was concluded that the cost of rehabilitation and expansion would likely be of similar magnitude, if not exceed, the cost of constructing a new facility.

 

The low ceiling heights, small size of the Central Area, lack of accessible paths to levels, and lack of distributed toilet facilities (as noted in the Condition’ section above) are consequences of the basic building configuration. A solution based upon rehabilitating the building would require either that large portions of roof structure and interior load-bearing partitions would need to be removed and rebuilt(reducing any cost-effectiveness of rehabilitation) or else the end result would remain compromised in these areas. 

 

Possible phasing of an expansion/rehabilitation project was also considered.   Since shutting down the school is not an option, such a project would either need to be phased and accomplished during several successive summer breaks, resulting in greater costs for mobilization and general conditions, as well as disruption and safety concerns for students in a partially remodeled facility. The alternative would be to bring in temporary classrooms (trailers), which would also add substantial cost (estimated line item cost of at least $250,000 for a sixteen month duration) and disruption, making it extremely difficult to maintain the sort of integrated teaching which is at the heart of the ACS curriculum.

 

Constructing a new building, on the other hand, would allow the school to continue operating as it has until the new building is ready for occupancy, and the removals, remodeling or other work to the existing building to occur after it had been vacated, and safely secured from students. A new building can also be designed to remedy all of the functional deficiencies, as well as the conditional ones. For all these reasons, the physical solution arrived at by the CCY, the CPC and the community input process, is to construct a new building. Once that is complete, remove most of the existing building, retaining only the Central Area and appending to this a small amount of new (or reconstructed) space to house the music program. This small rehabilitation will benefit the music program by preserving the Central Area for rehearsals, performances, coffee houses, and similar programs. The space will  also be available to the entire school and community for meetings and events. 

As part of the Aspen Community School Master Planning process, a wide range of rehabilitation and replacement options were considered. These specifically included options to remediate, rehabilitate and expand the current building. The first indication that replacement of the ACS building would be more feasible than remediation, rehabilitation and expansion came from the CDE-AR, issued in draft form on 01-10-10 and later revised and dated 03-01-10. In brief summary, this report calculated a Condition Budget of $3,558,698 and a Suitability Budget of $4,255,900, for a total of $7,824,598. This exceeds the report’s estimated replacement value of $5,968,214 by $ 1,846,384. 

 

Because rehabilitation costs are greater than 70% of replacement cost, the CDE-AR suggests that the preferred alternative would be to replace the main ACS building with a new one, along with rehabilitating other existing buildings as necessary to serve their revised functions.

 

While this summary from the CDE-AR indicates the desirability of replacement, it cannot accurately reflect the total project cost for either avenue of action because, in addition to the issues which are apparent to an assessment team, there are a number of requirements for this project of which the CDE assessors could not have been aware.

 

Site Access – In approving its land-use action to allow expansion of the ACS to suit its space needs, Pitkin County conditioned permitting of that expansion upon bringing the access driveway up to current county standards, since it serves not only a public school, but several uphill residential properties as well. The applicable standard for fire vehicle access is a twenty foot wide driveway, which does not exist today. Thus, any project – either re-use or replacement, must include the cost of that upgrade.

 

Water Systems – An Augmentation Agreement with the State Water Authority requires various remediations to legitimize the school’s domestic water supply and to provide properly authorized water storage for fire suppression purpose, both inside the buildings and around them

 

Sanitary Waste system – the existing waster systems are beyond useful life and inadequate to the current and anticipated flows. This has been noted by the county in previous land-use actions and is required to be addressed prior to occupying any new facilities on the site.

 

In order to incorporate these required project costs which are not explicitly part of the building construction work, as well as the normal range of ‘Soft’ costs which pertain to any construction project, CCY has prepared the two attached Cost Estimate Outline spreadsheets.

 

The first spreadsheet shows the total project requirements and costs if the existing building is remediated (addressing deficiencies), rehabilitated (brought back to fresh serviceable state) and expanded (to meet the calculated space needs for current and future use).

 

The second spreadsheet shows the total project requirements and costs if the existing building is replaced by a new building as proposed in the Master Plan.

 

As can be seen, the Replacement option ends up costing slightly less overall, due in part to the greater efficiency of constructing new space versus extensive interior alterations and additions. It also reflects that re-use would require either that the work be broken up into phases which could occur during several consecutive summer breaks, or moving the entire school into temporary facilities for over a year, either of which has a considerable cost impact. 

 

As educators, we have also taken into account the disruption which would occur in the re-use scenario and its potential effect on student progress and health. Finally, replacement results in nearly all new facilities, with a longer useful life than even a well rehabilitated existing building. It will allow all spaces to be designed properly for their intended function, rather than being shoe-horned into existing spaces and layouts. In short, replacement offers a better end result, with far less disruption to the educational purposes of the school, and at a lower cost, than the re-use option.

 

Because rehabilitation costs are greater than 70% of replacement cost, the preferred alternative is to replace the main ACS building with a new one, along with rehabilitating other existing buildings as necessary to serve their revised functions.

 

The Aspen Community School has a 40 year history, stable enrollment, a positive relationship with the Aspen School District and serves a purpose which is strongly desired in the community.

The Master Plan described herein and in the rest of this Application represents the most direct and most cost-efficient means to mitigate the many dysfunctional conditions of the current site and buildings. It will ensure the Aspen Community School can provide a safe and effective teaching facility for decades to come.