While student achievement is on the rise at Redwood City School District (RCSD), one of San Mateo County’s lowest-funded districts, a shifting demographic was redefining the needs of the community. The district’s schools required significant repairs and upgrades to bring them up to 21st-century learning standards, and with the state of California not funding school facility improvements, Bond Measure T was approved locally. B&D provided strategic leadership, implementation management, and communications and public engagement services.

With the majority of buildings and schools between 50 and 80 years old, RCSD was focused on some much-needed modernizations: updated libraries, multi-use spaces, fire and earthquake safety upgrades, new administration spaces, security modifications, and more. B&D was able to work within the tight budget of the bond, maximizing each site’s impact, and value engineering as necessary, to best execute the district’s vision.

Moving these initiatives through the entire project life-cycle, B&D managed the design of all school sites, oversees their progress through the Division of the State Architect’s review, and managed selected construction managers at each site for the modernizations and other bond-related projects as they are approved by the board. Reporting bi-monthly to the board, B&D was able to continually adjust scopes and strategies as the district’s goals shift, even through several population-related school closures.

The Communications & Public Engagement team supported the program through website management, development and creation of an additional bond measure website, event planning support, and monthly report management and coordination.