Trustees are all in for a new CDC

The San Marcos CISD will soon have a new facility for its youngest learners. At its meeting Monday night, the SMCISD board of trustees voted unanimously to fully renovate the current Teaching, Learning and Assessment building and use it as the district’s Child Development Center (CDC). 

The board had heard a presentation at a special meeting last week on the district’s two options for the Teaching, Learning and Assessment building: either making touch-ups or carrying out more extensive renovations to allow the CDC to serve more children and extend the life of the building.

“It’s worth it,” trustee Margie Villalpando said. 

The CDC is licensed to care for 60 children and has classes for infants, toddlers, 2- and 3-year olds, and pre-kindergarteners.

The trustees also approved the schematic design for the district’s new administrative office, which will be located on the Mendez Elementary campus. Coleman Uresti with architectural firm Perkins + Will presented the design during his update on various construction projects around the district. 

“We’re trying to go out to bid at the end of this summer on this project,” Uresti said.

He presented the board with suggestions for the layout of the building, the look and feel of the various spaces, the potential for open offices that would allow flexibility in growth and purpose, and the importance of an attractive and welcoming lobby area.

“Simple, nice … this is the face of SMCISD,” he said.

Uresti also discussed different ideas to help with traffic, since the administrative office will be adding traffic on the Mendez campus. 

“Traffic will be coming and going throughout the day for administration,” he said.

Some of the options for traffic control include adding 80 parking spaces, creating a separate entry for administration parking and reworking the existing bus loop on the campus. 

Drainage is another consideration for the architects. Uresti said there is already one detention pond in place but another could be installed. 

“If we come in and we’re adding a parking lot … we know we need to be able to detain our water, but we want to be respectful of our neighbors around us.”

The board approved the schematic design with the understanding that as design progresses, more details will emerge and options will be narrowed down. 

As for the other construction projects throughout the district, including the new elementary campus, Uresti said, “Right now we’re still right on schedule. … We really haven’t run into any surprises yet.”