PCSD

After completing Phase I of University Park and beginning construction on Phase II, I had the opportunity to sit down with Adam Kaye to talk about his background, KIPP Northern California’s expansion into Stockton, and his relationship with PCSD. It’s been a pleasure to work with Adam and Taylan Ekici, Managing Director of Real Estate and Development, and we appreciate the opportunity to partner with KIPP Northern California and to be a part of their continual growth in Stockton.

1. Tell us a little about yourself and how you got started with KIPP Northern  California?

I’ve been involved with charter schools for about 20 years now. I founded a charter school in Oakland and then I started working for Rocketship Education in 2012, another CMO based out of Redwood City. I was doing real estate for them and was travelling back and forth between Redwood City, San Jose, and Oakland where I live and then saw this opportunity open up at KIPP Northern California where I started in Sept. 2014. So, I’ve been with KIPP Northern California for 8 years now.

2. Can you tell us about KIPP Northern California’s expansion into Stockton? What made you decide to expand from a Bay Area focus?

We expanded first and then changed our name. In 2017, we started considering an expansion into Stockton. Our previous CEO was approached by Don Shalvey. We had great conversations with the Superintendent, the Mayor and various community groups in Stockton. It was something that was considered long and hard as we still had a lot of work to do with our existing schools. However, we made the decision to grow into Stockton. All of our current growth is focused on Stockton. We have five schools we are building there. Once we have completed those schools, we will likely be done with our expansion. At that point, we will have 19-20 schools total with five of those in Stockton.

3. With the recent completion of Phase I for University Park, what are your plans for the future phases? And can you tell us about Conway Homes?

We’ve begun construction on Phase II – the academic building is going up and the MPR will follow. We will be done by the end of July 2023 and ready for the 2023-2024 school year. We have plans for future and final phase (Phase III) for the 2025-2026 school year which would bring us to a full TK-8 on the University Park campus. We have a total of 56,000-57,000 sqft,

We are about to start work on Phase III of Conway Homes. We currently have six portables and a 6500 sqft converted childcare building. We finished the portables in the 2021-2022 school year and then completed the childcare center for the 2022-2023 school year. We are starting demo shortly and should be ready for the 2023-2024 school year. Additionally, we have plans for a future and final phase (Phase IV) for the 2025-2026 school year.

So, KIPP Northern California in Stockton will have two facility projects completed for the 2023-2024 school year as well as two facility projects for the 2025-2026 school year.

And there’s a future project to complete a high school campus by 2026. We will likely incubate the high school on one of the campuses for the first year. The idea is that University Park and Conway Homes would be feeder schools for the high school.

4. How did PCSD support your project/s? Which PCSD service/s helped your project/s the most?

PCSD was the project manager for the projects. They interacted with the GC and the architect in design and construction. We have also been pretty involved with the process. PCSD has been an extension of us for the project but has also served as an intermediary with the GC. They have kept our feet to the fire and kept an eye on everything from beginning to end.

Once PCSD started working on Conway Homes as well, things started heating up, so PCSD provided additional support to help.

5. What surprised you the most about working with PCSD on this most recent project?

We appreciated that PCSD listened to our concerns and were able to provide additional capacity. We have increased our communications and are in a lot of meetings with PCSD: organization, design, construction, etc.

 

PCSD is thrilled to announce our partnership with LA Promise Fund/The Intern Project. PCSD will host two high school students for six weeks onsite in the LA office this summer. We will be providing opportunities to see first-hand development of a project from site selection to completion. We look forward to providing more details as we get closer to the summer.

About LA Promise Fund (LAPF)

LA Promise Fund (LAPF) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to prepare students for college, career, and life. LA Promise Fund creates vibrant community hubs and partnerships that foster motivated, engaged, and directed students poised for academic, professional, and personal success.

About The Intern Project

The Intern Project (TIP) provides public high school students across Los Angeles the opportunity to work in dynamic career areas through paid remote or onsite internships.

 

School heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems have moved from a behind-the-scenes role to a front-of-house focus now that students have returned to in-person learning. Accordingly, many school leaders and maintenance personnel have begun to wonder whether their HVAC systems are up to the challenge of keeping spaces clean, comfortable, and safe.

Inspections performed at the Education for Change Achieve Academy site (former Hawthorne Elementary School constructed in the 1930’s and expanded in the 1940’s) identified their system as antiquated. Radiators provided heat to all the classrooms and offices throughout the facility. Many of the radiators did not function well and the entire system showed severe signs of wear. The system did not provide for any air conditioning or current day air filtration and, in order to comply with Covid-19 air filtration requirements, the school introduced standalone portable air filtration units into each classroom and office space.

Without a doubt, having a new or significantly improved HVAC system carries plenty of advantages for schools and their occupants. Foremost is peace of mind in regard to the health and well-being of their students, teachers, administrators, staff, and visitors, as a good ventilation system is considered the first line of defense against airborne illness.

Equipment like air purifiers and filtration solutions that use HEPA filters don’t just scrub the air of viruses, germs, and allergens though. They can also remove fine pollutants like smoke and dust particles known to cause physical irritation in some children and adults.

Installing a new HVAC system into an 80+ year old facility over a summer break poses many challenges. As a result, some work was performed several months in advance of the main construction, including remediation of asbestos and lead in ceiling tiles and paint.

A construction of this magnitude required packing up most of the classrooms and administrative areas for the summer. Only a limited area in the classrooms was available for storage. Demolition of existing radiator units, some casework and sinks to accommodate the new equipment all required clearance area to meet OSHA requirements.

With an extensive amount of equipment located on the roof, a roof rehabilitation was also performed. The aged roof was able to be refurbished with an overlay that provided the school with a 30-year warrantied roof.

Staff and students have commented that they hadn’t realized how large of an impact that this HVAC project would have on their school. They are looking forward to the next phase.

WCSD has been working closely with Why Not You Academy (WNYA), a single-site charter high school located in Des Moines, WA, from their founding in 2021 when we delivered phase I of their current charter school facility.

One of the highlights of our partnership has been to connect with their high school students through WNYA’s Leaving to Learn Program. The program focuses on providing access to experiences, resources, relationships, and opportunity through informational interviews, job shadowing, internships, and more. My colleagues and I at WCSD and PCSD have participated in many informational interviews over the last year. Students have spoken with regional directors, project managers/directors, finance directors, our general counsel, and our fundraising director all in an effort to learn more about various job types and gain experience in scheduling, interviewing, and networking. Most recently, the WCSD team had the opportunity to provide a job shadow day for one of their students, Amaar H., a 10^th grader.

Amaar joined us on a site visit to Impact Public Schools Black River Elementary School (Impact | BRE) in Renton, WA. This is the fourth school for this charter school network which stretches from Seattle to Tacoma. Construction began on the TK-5 facility in mid-October. The school is set to open in August 2023 starting with 253 TK-1 graders and will grow to 594 at full capacity.

Amaar toured the facility and met with our general contractors, Marpac Construction.

You can learn more about WNYA’s Leaving to Learn program or join their network of partners.

PCSD is thrilled to announce that Lighthouse Community Public Schools was able to purchase the property for Lodestar from us a year earlier than anticipated due to support from the Rogers Family Foundation and the securing of a bond. Lighthouse now fully owns their “forever home”.

With Lighthouse’s repayment of the $6.38 million in philanthropic funding for the two facility projects for Lodestar, PCSD has now been able to recycle our fifth project from our Bay Area Revolving Charter School Facilities Fund.

PCSD works closely with our charter school partners to find the most affordable long-term facility solution. Sometimes this means that we purchase the property, develop the facility and lease the building to our charter school partner for several years until they are in a position to secure financing to purchase it from us.

PCSD began working with Lighthouse Lodestar in 2017 to develop a former seminary site in Oakland, CA. This site, located in the Sobrante Park neighborhood, serves as the permanent home for Lighthouse’s second school, Lodestar. Phase I of this project was completed in 2018 with 575 student seats for grades K-8.

For Phase II, PCSD expanded the campus to add a high school facility with 300 student seats. The facility was completed in fall 2020 and, due to the pandemic, finally open to students in fall 2021. The school now has a total capacity of 850 student seats, encompassing grades TK-12.