As Ridgefield School District’s (RSD) buildings face challenges accommodating a growing student population, 2024 is a planning year for the district.
As the district has failed to pass five school bonds since 2017, the district has changed its strategy for the upcoming April 23 special election, featuring a pair of bond propositions. A vote count of 60 percent plus one is required for each of the bonds to pass.
Communications Director Joe Vajgrt said the current bond was split into two as a strategic decision, as the previous attempts to pass a bond failed after 2017. He said the district is running out of room to teach its students. The district has converted several unconventional rooms, including gymnasiums and theaters, into classrooms to serve as regular classrooms, Vajgrt said.
“A challenge right now for our elementary level is that our two elementary schools are half original buildings and half new construction from a previous bond,” Vaigrt said. “There’s a lot more kids in portables right now in our elementary school campuses compared to our middle school campuses.”
When the district’s previous bond was approved by voters in 2017, the district had 2,826 students enrolled. Since that time, an additional 1,337 students have enrolled. Now, 4,163 students are currently enrolled in Ridgefield schools, according to the district’s website. Propositions 10 and 11 in Ridgefield’s April 23 special election are aimed to provide permanent classroom space for the growing district.
Proposition 10, the first of the two bonds, will include construction of a 75,000-square-foot elementary school at 7025 N. 10th St. The bond would also fund a 23,000-square-foot expansion at Ridgefield High School, including 10 general education classrooms.
Proposition 11, which can only be approved if Proposition 10 passes and reaches its own 60% plus one vote benchmark, would additionally fund a new middle school for grades 5-8. It also includes the addition of a new wrestling room at Ridgefield High School.
If both bonds are approved, the new elementary school and RHS classroom expansion would be complete by fall 2025. The new middle school and RHS wrestling room would be complete by fall 2026.
The new K-4 school campus listed in Proposition 10 has an expected capacity of 600 students. As the design process for the new intermediate school in Proposition 11 is ongoing, staff do not have an expected capacity at this time.
Cost considerations
The Ridgefield Board of Directors voted to add $10.5 million in collected impact fees to lower the cost of the bond ahead of the bond’s proposal. The cost of Proposition 10 was reduced from $72 million to $70 million, and the cost of Proposition 11 decreased from roughly $128.5 million to $120 million. The total cost of both bonds passing was lowered from $200.5 million to $190 million.
With successful bond passage, the district expects to receive an $11.7 million matching grant from the state. Should both bonds pass, the district’s budget would total $212.2 million in project funding, including money received from bonds, impact fees and grants.
If only Proposition 10 passes, the $70 million bond would cost property owners approximately $3.11 per $1,000 of assessed home value. If Property 11 passes, as well, residents will pay $3.89 per $1,000 of assessed value total for both bond propositions.
Vajgrt said that while bond debt usually has a lifespan of 21 years, the length of the bond depends on how much the district collects from property owners.
Project priorities
The proposed new wrestling room for Ridgefield High School, placed on the second bond, is a priority project for the district. Last year, View Ridge Middle School’s wrestling room was used as classroom space to accommodate the growing student population.
“That school grew in capacity, so we needed classroom space more than athletic space,” Griffith said. “We converted that [wrestling room] last year into classrooms … This year we were able to move it back into a wrestling room because we were able to close the [theater], and then we shut down a couple other smaller spaces for kids to get instruction in. But there’s no kind of promise or guarantee moving forward that if we aren’t able to get another intermediate middle school, that we won’t have to continue to cannibalize some of those spaces.”
Vajgrt said another reason the new elementary school takes precedence is the site is shovel-ready. R&C Management, a firm that oversees construction projects, has completed the design process of the project, paid by the district through impact fees.
In a Feb. 12 meeting, the Board of Directors approved signing a contract with R+C Management. The firm will oversee the construction projects for both schools should the bonds be approved. LSW architects created the design for the K-4 school included in Proposition 10 and is working on the design for the intermediate school in Proposition 11.
Griffith explained that the planning process will help the district build the two new schools once a bond is approved. Plans for the new elementary school are already complete, with the design process for the intermediate school underway.
Due to the timing, Griffith is unsure if floor plans for the new intermediate school will be available for public review ahead of the April special election.
“It’ll have everything [from] a commons library, it’ll have an administrative center, science classrooms, art classroom, gym, a sports field,” Griffith said. “...Depending on how far we get along, we may or may not get to the point that it'll have a floor plan for people to look at.”
Contingencies
If Proposition 10 passes and Proposition 11 fails, no major expansions will be made at the intermediate and middle school level. Griffith said it is too early to say whether the district would convert one of its elementary schools to alleviate student capacity at the higher grade levels.
“When it actually comes time to make a decision, the administration does everything they can to [make] the best-worst decision that has the least impact on student learning,” Griffith said.
School board members have stated that portables are a costly and short-term solution. In addition, Griffith stated that RSD’s campuses at the elementary and intermediate level have little room for additional portables and are the grades that are most impacted by the lack of classroom space.
Portables, which became popular late last century as a way to increase classroom space on campuses, fell out of favor in recent years as increased security became a priority at schools because it is hard to monitor who is entering and exiting the structures throughout the day.
The Board of Directors has not detailed any backup plans for the district should both bonds fail. Vajgrt said the district wants to focus on the bond proposals at hand to avoid confusion among residents by speculating on possibilities.
“In a past bond, we did say the plan was for [opening] a K-5 to alleviate the middle school, but we’re not saying that this time,” Vajgrt said. “It has been something that's been discussed in the past … If you don’t prepare families, then they say ‘how come you didn’t prepare us?’ If you say ‘this could be a consequence,’ they say ‘you’re using fear mongering,’ so we’re just kind of in a no-win [situation], you know, no matter what we say. So we’re kind of just trying to not say anything.”
Previous school district decisions have raised questions for some residents. The school district has been asked why one of its previous school buildings cannot be used to house students. After the district successfully passed a 2017 bond, the old View Ridge Middle School was converted into the Ridgefield Administrative and Civic Center (RACC) and is currently used for non-academic purposes. Griffith said that the district would not have received an additional $25.512 million in funding from the state had it not converted the space.
“The Capital Facility Advisory Committee deemed in all of their work that this wasn’t a suitable middle school,” Griffith said. “There just isn’t enough land at all [for] athletic fields … It grew next to an elementary school that was close to 1,000 students that interior roads couldn’t handle. Pioneer [Street] couldn't take all of the traffic coming down.”
More information on the two proposed bonds, including additional improvements to district schools, can be found at ridgefieldsd.org/page/bond.
This story was changed to reflect the following corrections:
