AURORA | A wide range of construction projects will begin this month at buildings across the Cherry Creek School District as part of a a $125 million bond issue that passed last year.
A good portion of that building will take place in Aurora. Construction kicking off this month includes more than $8.5 million in classroom additions, track replacement at Legacy Stadium and upgrades to science, technology, math and engineering space at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora; more than $5 million in security camera upgrades and building renovations at Prairie Middle School; and expansions at Grandview High School. Earlier this month, Adolfson & Peterson Construction started $8.4 million in fast-tracked construction work at Eaglecrest High School.
That work includes roof replacement, security camera updates and upgrades to science, technology, engineering and math class space. That work, in addition to projects at more than 20 schools across the district, is slated for completion on Aug. 2, weeks before students report back to classes.
“What we can accomplish while the students are on break is pretty remarkable,” said Adolf & Peterson Eaglecrest Project Manager Mario Cappella in a statement. “It’s satisfying to know that these students will return to an improved Eaglecrest High School next school year.”
All of these construction projects will be funded as part of the $125 million bond issue passed by voters last November. The list of construction projects to be completed in the next five years came from recommendations provided by the district’s Long Range Facility Planning committee.
“This is what they projected that we need for the next five years. It may not take us that long to complete everything,” said district spokeswoman Tustin Amole. “One of the things that they projected that we would need is a new high school. We put off building a new high school this time around,” she added.
Instead, the bond plan opted for a different approach to handle the district’s looming capacity issues, which are significant. Officials anticipate a growth of anywhere from 16,000 to nearly 17,900 students in the district’s high-school students by 2017. At Cherokee Trail, district officials estimate that the number of students could increase to as much as 4,110 by 2017. At Grandview, the number hit as high as 2,826 by 2017.
Instead of building the district’s seventh high school in Aurora (a building that would cost the district $125 million), the summer construction projects are part of a plan that will add capacity and STEM facilities to existing buildings. Those additions are set to deal with the expected influx for the next five years, and relieve the strain on mobile classrooms that have been set up at high schools across the district.
“We’re doing this as soon as it can be done,” Amole said. “There are some expansions to the high schools that won’t be completed during the summer. It would take longer.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com