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The process to secure funding for major renovations to Floyd S. Kay Technical Education Center is underway.
The Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors on Monday adopted a resolution authorizing an application to borrow $9 million from the Virginia Literary Fund to pay for this construction project. The county School Board approved a similar resolution on Jan. 10.
R.T. Taylor of Davenport and Company, the firm advising the county on financial matters, explained to the supervisors Monday the division is keeping two funding options open for financing the school construction project. In addition to the Literary Fund, the county could seek financing through the Virginia Public School Authority. A decision will be made in coming weeks on which option to pursue.
Dr. Phillip Thompson, superintendent of county schools, has noted that the construction of the original FSK building predates the 1992 construction of the high school. The School Board, he said, has estimated the FSK renovation project will cost $7.7 million.
Prior to its vote on Monday, the Board of Supervisors was able to preview what’s in store for the new FSK building at a joint meeting with the county School Board last Thursday. Representatives from Spectrum Design, Nathan Harper and Nick Britton, illustrated new aspects of the building with design layouts and blueprints.
“From the onset of the project, we knew that one of the greatest assets would be gathering information from teachers and the community at large since you’ve been dealing with this building day in and day out,” said Britton.
Spectrum designers met with teachers, staff and members of the IT department to get a better understanding of what they really wanted in the new FSK.
Spectrum also gathered surveys from the entire community to determine what features of the CTE program would be considered most important. This evaluation process aided Spectrum in developing the layout from their first pragmatic design, Britton noted. Leslie Ayers, vice chair of the Board of Supervisors, said she appreciates the collaboration with teachers and students. “I would love to see that for the people who are actually in the rooms,” she commented.
Last week, Spectrum’s whole team of engineers and architects visited FSK to confirm final measurements and to inspect the facility’s existing systems along with how the rooms operate. The heating and air-conditioning units at the high school were recently updated, and as a part of evaluating current systems within the building, Spectrum is determining how much of this new equipment can be salvaged and used in the renovated system. Investigating these features now will allow for a fluid, functional design and a painless transition into construction, Britton said.
Flexibility and fluidity have been a major focus for the team when designing FSK’s floor plan, said Nathan Harper, Spectrum’s director of design. He noted that the circulation of the current building is “choppy.” He said he looked at ways to “encourage cross collaboration and interaction between students who are participating in these programs and those who aren’t.” He knew he wanted to showcase the CTE program by making a “pedestrian connection where students can make a full hallway loop.”
Spectrum began by shifting the programs’ spaces within the building. Hands-on programs such as auto body, welding, building trades, auto mechanics and agriculture have been “clustered” to the east end of the building, he said, allowing greater access to the exterior and the service/loading platform. Integrated into the workshops are classrooms for instructional lessons away from the workshop and equipment. Labs and classrooms – specifically for electronics and technology, small animal care, culinary, the nurses program and EMT – are situated to the west wing of the building.
David McDaniel, chair of the Board of Supervisors, said he wondered if this layout would be flexible enough to reconfigure classes if a program were to stop and another were to begin.
“One of the reasons we’ve sort of tried to cluster these larger volume rooms on one side is to allow for that. If you wanted to tear a wall down and expand, you have that potential to reset that space,” Harper responded.
Designers also made workshop spaces slightly oversized to allow for flexibility within the CTE course selection and the required equipment.
“It’s likely that there are things we’re teaching today that may not exist 50 years from now,” Harper said. “Being able to design a good, solid, flexible space will help insulate you from not only the future, but it will help make those changes and be able to adapt as programs change and as program technology changes. Programs will evolve and shift, so [the space] wants to be able to accommodate for that.”
Everything has been shifted to accommodate a new lobby and commons area that will serve as a multifunctional space, which can host student activities throughout the day and after-hour business meetings in the evening. Harper said the design also factors in an outdoor commons area adjacent to the cafeteria and the FSK lobby to offer an outdoor dining option or workspace and to create an inclusive spot for regular students and CTE students.
This work is all taking place within the current FSK facility with no significant construction changes to the site. The only addition to the building will be a storage space and an outdoor building pad in the northern sector of the building, and a green house and agriculture program classroom in the southern sector.
Upon finishing the design of the interior of the building, Harper and Britton began considering the exterior. “We’re now taking those LEGO blocks, if you will, of all those programs and we essentially designed this building from the inside out,” Harper said. “First, we had to decide how to best solve this jigsaw puzzle from a planning perspective. Now, we’re moving to the exterior and wondering how this impacts the perimeter of the building.”
Spectrum has essentially concluded the schematic design process and is working towards the subsequent phases of development. “[This phase] has more to do with the [technicalities] and how it’s built and [how] these systems work, and then trying to explain that to a contractor so when you’re getting bids, you’re getting apples to apples,” said Harper.
Thompson said he is hopeful the bidding process will begin in March or April, with an anticipated construction launch set for May. “The primary goal is to have the renovation completed and occupancy established prior to the start of school in the fall of 2024.”
South River Supervisor Bob Day said he wondered how the school would sustain the CTE program while the FSK facility undergoes construction. “The phasing of construction projects like this is difficult; I’m not going to sugar coat it,” Harper responded.
Currently, RCPS administration and the Spectrum team are reviewing their options to ensure that students are not detrimentally affected by the displacement period. Harper noted that there will be some spaces within the CTE building that can be used, while other classrooms and spaces will remain off-limits for any sort of instructional use. Spectrum is also looking at options for temporary classrooms outside of the building’s footprint.
Thompson said he is hoping to utilize the support of community partnerships and local businesses. “Some opportunities may exist with other CTE advisory council members or community partnerships or local businesses, whether it’s just field trips or something into their shop and doing different things and having different opportunities,” he said.
“There are going to be times when classes are going to be disrupted and have to go somewhere. Certainly, the phasing sequence will help and if we can keep [classes] in their place where they are now for as long as possible that’s great,” he continued. “When they have to move, they’ll have to move, and they’ll have to be on other parts of available high school property. They’ll probably be on [mobile] carts quite a bit, which is not ideal. It goes back to the idea of if there was a silver lining with Covid, it was that they had to learn how to teach differently.”
He added, “It is exciting to think about a modern and updated facility where all of the students of RCHS feel welcome to explore and learn skills that can help them in everyday life or the workforce.”
