Travis Unified board approves plan to move sixth grade to Golden West, contingent on environmental and construction approvals

The Travis Unified School District board voted to approve a grade-span reconfiguration that would relocate sixth-grade students to Golden West in a hybrid/sheltered model, the board decided after a multi-hour presentation and public Q&A. The board chair summarized the result as three members voting in favor and one opposed.

Superintendent Tiffany Benson outlined the recommendation as the culmination of a yearlong study of facilities, staffing and programmatic options. "We recommend that the board take action to move forward with grade span reconfiguration, requesting that it be no sooner than the 25–26 school year, contingent on the completion of the CEQA process," Benson said during her presentation.

Staff described the proposed model as a hybrid approach: sixth-grade students would have a core teacher or small-team core instruction in a dedicated district of classrooms while accessing electives and some shared facilities with seventh- and eighth-graders when appropriate. The presentation summarized outreach work that included more than 5,000 survey responses and district focus groups; staff also reported a staff survey with about 200 respondents showing roughly 141 supportive, 15 undecided, 12 no opinion and 22 not supporting the change.

Facilities staff presented a preliminary design concept that would add roughly 15 permanent learning spaces (not portables) near existing campus areas, include new restrooms and circulation, and add an ingress/egress configuration intended to reduce congestion. The business services director said the construction estimate for the proposed facilities was about $15.3 million and that the district expects to use developer fees as the primary funding source for facility costs. "Construction: about $15,300,000," the district's project lead said during the Q&A.

Board members raised a variety of logistical concerns about traffic, start times, campus safety, counseling and supervision, and the potential need for additional counseling, campus monitors and administrative positions. One board member asked staff to survey families of rising sixth graders about likely travel choices (bus versus parent drop-off) to better model traffic impacts. Staff said traffic and related mitigations will be evaluated in the CEQA process and that the project team had begun preliminary transportation planning with the new transportation director.

Several board members emphasized that the timeline is contingent on regulatory approvals. "We will not go forward if it wasn't ready to go," Benson said; the board also set the earliest feasible implementation as the 2025–26 school year, with the caveat that DSA and CEQA clearances and staffing agreements must be satisfied.

What the board approved tonight is a direction to move forward with the plan and to direct staff to continue planning and CEQA work; it is not the final construction authorization. The board instructed staff to return with additional details — including refined cost projections, traffic/parking mitigation plans, staffing implications and the CEQA schedule — before any irreversible steps.

Next steps: staff will continue CEQA and DSA work, refine costs and timelines, survey families about transportation choices, and return to the board with more detailed implementation and staffing proposals prior to any construction contract awards or firm start dates.