Future LE Classroom Building
Summer Construction at LE
June 2017
Summer Construction started the moment the students left campus.
The day after school got out, XL construction cleared the site and removed the asphalt playground to start grading the building pad. The summer goal is to get as much done while students are off so we have taken over the whole site. Summer plans include:
Site grading
Underground utilities installation
Pier Drilling and construction
Grade Beam installation
Concrete slab installation
Site retaining walls
Bioswale installation
New Two Story, 21 Classroom Building
Spring 2017
We are currently planning for the construction of our new two story classroom building at La Entrada. The District has contracted with XL Construction to build our new building and sitework starting this summer. We will break ground as soon as school ends and much of the building's structural framing will be completed by the start of school in August 2017. The building, designed by CAW Architects, is organized around a central atrium and hallway on the ground floor and breakout collaboration space on the second floor.
The classrooms are designed to foster collaboration within the class environment and between adjacent classrooms as needed. Most classrooms have operable partitions that allow the room to open to the adjacent classroom to provide joint use opportunities. Collaboration pods are shared between classrooms and allow for group collaboration activities, differentiated learning, breakout sessions, one on one review, or self guided learning. Where possible, the classrooms also have operable partitions to the collaboration spaces outside the classrooms to provide additional educational opportunities beyond the classroom walls. The versatility these rooms provide will accommodate changes in curriculum, subject matter, and style for the next 50 years.
The construction will last a little over a year. With our summer start, we plan to complete construction in the summer of 2018 and move into the building in time for the start of the 2018-2019 school year.
Newly Completed Lunch Area
Summer 2014
The expanded lunch area provides much needed extra real estate for additional tables so everyone can enjoy sitting together at lunch. Those that remember the old lunch area will recall the sloped grass area that transitioned from the higher elevation of the lunch area down to the field. With the expanded lunch area, instead of reproducing that same slope, we decided to incorporate a seating wall in the grade shift. The new seating wall will be enjoyed by students at lunch. PE classes as a lecture space, and as bleachers for weekend community field use. This repurposing of space for dual uses is an example of our future planning approach to our building program.
Summer 2014 Projects
This summer has been a busy summer preparing for a wave of students from Las Lomitas moving over to La Entrada. We expanded our relocatable village to include three relocated classrooms (the 50's wing) from the back of the campus to the new village, four new classrooms, a teacher work room, and a restroom building. This additional work required extensive infrastructure upgrades to the area that were necessary to prepare for the future demolition of buildings as part of the building program. In addition to the new buildings we also enlarged the lunch area to finally have enough room for the students to sit at a table to eat. The enlarged area allowed us to add a seat wall that overlooks the field for the students to congregate during playtimes.
While we have been building and making immediate modifications, we have also been planning for our future facilities modifications towards 21st Century teaching spaces. Our first modification has been to outfit four classrooms with prototype furniture and experiment with 21st Century principles such as flexible space configurations, group learning, differentiated learning, and increased student movement. These pilot classrooms will inform our decisions moving forward for the new construction and classroom layouts and features so we hope everyone will inquire about their effectiveness and provide input.
