Additions Proposed For Four Wayzata Elementary Schools

Right-sizing several elementary school buildings in the is up for discussion at a 3:30 p.m. School Board work session today.

According to the district, elementary buildings are most efficient if they have about 24 to 26 classrooms for capacity. That includes one art room, one music room and one gym.

Only three of Wayzata elementary buildings meet this 24 to 26 classroom criteria: , and . Four elementary school buildings are smaller than the 24 to 26 classroom size: , , and .

If the district decided to add elementary classroom space, it would make the most sense to add to those facilities that already have support space available and the administrative structure present.

The right-sizing of the smaller elementary schools would be to add space the most efficient way possible and the concept plan could include additional work at Oakwood because of its size, site, visibility and geographic location.

Oakwood could include two phases of additions made. Phase 1 could include remodeling and expanding the cafeteria, remodeling the special education area, a media center/office/kindergarten/art addition of 9,400 square feet, a definite media center remodeling and school office remodeled area. The projected cost for this phase would be $3.6 million.

Oakwood's second phase of work could also include a potential addition of 10,875 square feet added onto the building near the existing playground, pond and next to the south parking lot. This new space would include eight more classrooms and possibly another gym with storage. The additional gym would be near the north parking lot. The projected cost for Phase 2 would be $4.2 million.

For Greenwood Elementary additions would include four more classroms with a gym that would total 16,500 square feet, an expanded cafteria area, a remodeling of the kitchen and music room. The potential cost for this work would be $5.3 million.

At Sunset Hill Elementary, the addition of four classroms would total a possible cost of $1.6 million for 4,730 more square feet of space.

Similarly, Birchview Elementary would also get four more classrooms at the cost of $1.6 million for about 4,610 more square feet.

The possible timeline for this work would be this year and the next. Construction starting in October 2012 and continuing to May 2013 to be ready for the beginning of the 2013 school year, if everything was approved as proposed and there were no major obstacles in the process.