A Growing School
Imagine a school built solely to address and improve the quality of life for at-risk children from lower-income families. Imagine these third, fourth, and fifth graders, seeing their school grow by a new grade each year, so as they approached that transition, a space is created just for them. Imagine a mantra called the Code of Respect spoken aloud each morning along with the Pledge of Allegiance. Imagine art and music and science. Imagine hope.
It exists. The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in West Las Vegas came online for grades 3-5 on August 30, 2001. True to its intent, the charter school added sixth graders in its second year of operation, the current school year. With the completion of phase I, the 26,430-square-foot elementary school, the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation (AACF) is preparing for phase II. Estimated at close to $12 million, phase II brings a separate, grades 7-9 middle school onto the 7.8-acre academy site. And this building needs to be fully operational by August 2003 to allow the current sixth graders to move into seventh grade.
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PROJECT DATA Phase I Phase II |
In phase III, estimated at $17 million, the high school structure will be built while simultaneously a remodel of the elementary school will occur, adding four classrooms to the $4.5 million building. Phase III is scheduled to open in 2006, and the tight timeline is why design-build was employed for the second and third phases. When all three phases are online, students can attend the tuition-free charter school for grades K-12.
And there is no lack of students hoping to attend.
"Right now [with 200 students] we are fully capped out with the space that we have," said Julie Pippenger, executive director of the foundation. She added that at present, there are about 200 kids on the wait list. "So the wait list is just as long as the amount of kids we have."
Students are chosen via a lottery that uses the same software as the burgeoning Clark County School District (CCSD), which runs a random lottery where a computer does the selection. "We don’t have any knowledge of the kid’s grades or any of that kind of stuff," said Pippenger. "You just apply, if your name is entered and you are selected, you are accepted."
The AACF, founded in 1994, exists solely to help underprivileged children in Las Vegas by providing educational and recreational opportunities. Tennis Great Andre Agassi and his Business Manager Perry Rogers, who is president of the AACF and a close childhood friend, started the foundation. The not-for-profit charity held its seventh annual Grand Slam for Children fundraiser gala on September 28, 2002, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena where a record-breaking $5.6 million was raised. Although the AACF has about 11 organizations in Las Vegas, the academy is its biggest project to date. The foundation oversees the operations of the academy with the school’s principal, Wayne Tanaka, reporting directly to the charity.
Funding
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| The existing building comprises phase I, estimated at $4.5 million. Construction of phase II, the middle school portion of the academy, is set to start in early 2003 so it can open for seventh graders in August. The final phase, phase III, is estimated at $17 million. It includes the high school and a remodel of the elementary building to bring grades K-2 online. |
Core funding from the foundation was instrumental in meeting costs for bricks-and-mortar. In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funded $1.45 million, and $600,000 came from the state of Nevada in accordance with federal legislation. The academy operates under a charter, or contract, that allows more flexibility than public schools and the staff operates independently. Although the academy is monitored by the state and CCSD, the school functions outside the direct management of the school district and is accountable for how well it manages its fiscal and operational responsibilities. According to Pippenger, measurable results, such as testing, are a very significant measure of accountability and the goal of the academy charter is reaching high academic standards for all students, in other words, to matriculate.
"[The Grand Slam gala] has really been our main fundraiser," said Pippenger. Over the last eight years, the foundation raised more than $23 million. "There is one campaign to help pay for the bricks-and-mortar for the second and third phases of the school."
Soil Conditions
A grading permit to begin site grading and earthwork was received the week of Christmas and, as we went to print, construction was slated to begin in mid-to-late January 2003. An early start was needed because soil on the compact site is considered to be less than optimal for construction purposes.
"The soils are very expansive and the site must be over excavated to remove the expansive soils and the expansive soils must be replaced with suitable soils," explained Project Director Randy Hansen of Sletten Construction, the design-build contractor. "The existing site conditions include an abandoned roadway, abandoned utilities."
"To address this, we will over excavate to three feet below the footing level and then bring in the suitable material, regular type 2," said Project Manager Casey Waltari of Sletten Construction. "The soil conditions are pretty poor, sandy and a lot of clay."
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| CMU was chosen because it’s a low-maintenance material that doesn’t fade like some materials do in the desert sun and it’s a bit easier to wash down, explained Julie Pippenger, executive director of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which oversees operation of the academy. |
With so much prep work needed for the soil, the charitable foundation wanted to get an early grading permit. As Pippenger pointed out, "To be open by August does not leave a lot of room." She also explained that this type of soil, with a lot of sand in it, is not unique to the school site. "It exists in the general vicinity; it just takes a little more legwork is all."
Michael Del Gatto, AIT, of Carpenter Sellers Architects (CSA), the architectural firm that partnered with Sletten and completed the school’s master plan, noted that the neighborhood the school is in is one of a few neighborhoods in Las Vegas with this expansive soil.
"Because there is a lot of sand in the soil, there are certain things we can’t do," Pippenger elaborated, "like water within five feet of the building because it could possibly make the building sink. So we have to actually take out the layers of dirt and bring in new good soil, and build a stronger foundation than you normally would on better soil."
Delivery, Design, and Materials
Sletten Construction was on the job for phase I, which has the same duration as phase II and now involves CSA; phase I was a design-bid-build approach with a different architect. In the remaining phases, II and III, the owner selected the design-build delivery approach because of the accelerated schedule and the single point of responsibility aspect.
CSA finished a master plan for the academy as a grades K-12 school in summer 2002.
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Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS (for Phase I) Carpet and Flooring Lighting Security/Fire Safety Washroom Equipment/Supplies Office Equipment & Systems HVAC/Controls Miscellaneous |
"A lot of time was spent on the design process," explained Del Gatto. "This is not a cookie-cutter school."
Waltari concurred, he said that the academy has different angles and elements. "It is not a typical box style. The materials are similar but the design aspect is quite different from schools in Clark County." Both Sletten Construction and CSA have built and designed schools for the public school district.
CMU was used for the overall existing structure. "To create a unique campus, on the exterior of the buildings smooth-faced honey CMU, split-face CMU, and travertine stone will be used," explained Director Hansen. Phase II consists of a combination of concrete masonry units and structural steel.
The square footage of phase II is approximately 62,000 square feet. The one-story middle school is 26,203 square feet. A separate multipurpose building is two stories high and yields 27,229 square feet.
The student-to-teacher ratio is 25:1 and there also is a teacher’s aide. The school year is 10 days longer than Clark County and the day is extended by two hours. Classes run from 7:30 to 3:30, Monday through Friday.
In phase III, the high school will attach to the middle school and wrap around to connect with the multipurpose area. Then an administrative building will be wedged in on a small vacant spot. There will exist a tennis court and a grass play area between the elementary school and the middle school.
The middle school will run long-ways, east-to-west. Clerestory windows face south. The classrooms in the middle school are approximately 24′ by 40′, or 960 square feet. The classrooms in the elementary school are approximately 24′ by 32′, or 768 square feet.
There is a separate mechanical yard with a chiller for the middle school, which is separate from the mechanical system for the elementary school.
Sustainability in the Desert
Designer Robert Gurdison, AIT, with CSA, explained that due to budget constraints, there were limitations on the kind of sustainable design that could be included, but the firm did incorporate day lighting because of statistics demonstrating the positive affects natural light has on students’ ability to concentrate and learn.
Most of the classrooms the students are in are completely day lit, said Del Gatto, of CSA.
"By way of light monitors," explained Gurdison, "light is brought in from above and diffused on baffles to bring even light throughout the classrooms, and so we don’t have undesirable glare."
At the same time, the architects wanted to make sure there wasn’t any light where it actually wasn’t needed. Vice President Rick Sellers of CSA, explained that "Essentially, what we wanted to do is make sure that we didn’t put in too much day lighting to the point where now we’ve increased energy costs and we’ve put too much daylight into a room where you really didn’t need it."
Most of the buildings orient in the long axis east-west, which, according to Sellers, is ideal in the southwest, "Because we want to get most of our day lighting off the south and north sides and that is what most of the structures do. There are very few, if any, windows on any of the western exposures, which are our harshest exposure."