ACPS has completed the purchase the office building, which will be converted into a new elementary school for the West End, and is beginning the process of considering academic programs for the new school.
Superintendent Alvin L. Crawley outlined the next steps for the school and answered questions from the community at a meeting at William Ramsay Elementary School on Tuesday evening. ACPS hopes to announce the principal of the new school in July.
The new school will house 650 elementary school students. It will have a play space and basketball court on top of the parking garage and 465 parking spaces. The total cost to purchase the building was $15 million. The cost to retrofit and refurbish the building is estimated to be $23.2 million. This is considerably less than the cost of purchasing land and constructing a new building.
ACPS is confident that the office building at 1701 N. Beauregard and the garage at 1705 N. Beauregard will provide an optimal learning environment that adheres to the ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan goals and characteristics of a high-performing school division. The school will provide a rich and engaging instructional program, a strong continuum of student support services provided by highly skilled staff, strong parent engagement and a variety of community business partnerships.
Programs under consideration for the new school include university partnerships, a world language program, an international academy program, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS) and GLAD – a program that assists with language acquisition.
Student supports under consideration include Breakfast in the Classroom, Communities in Schools and the Extended Day Academic Program.
The goal is to have the Design-Build Firm on board this June. The development of the schematic design would begin in July, followed by a DSUP hearing by City Council in September. The construction would begin in early 2018 and the school would open in fall 2018. The school will have access for up to five buses. Walk routes will be reassessed.
Once the school building is complete there will be a naming committee who will decide the name of the new school.
The principal of the new school will come on board in July, while a registrar and administrative assistant will start in January 2018. A limited number of teachers will be able to apply from each of the other schools in ACPS.
View the full PowerPoint for New West End School presentation.