Timeline

An ordinance passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2014 required that all private schools be evaluated according to an engineering standard of life-safety or that everyone in the building can escape in the event of a significant earthquake.

However, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is encouraging all affected schools to retrofit to the life-safety standard of the ordinance. It commissioned additional seismic engineering reports exceeding the city’s requirements on each school building, with recommended structural changes and costs, and delivered them to pastors and principals between March-June 2016.

According to the archdiocese, the buildings remain safe to inhabit. However, each of the 24 San Francisco Catholic elementary schools has some recommended seismic retrofit, some significant, and some less significant. The aggregate estimated cost of the retrofits totals $70-80 million.

(Catholic San Francisco, Valerie Schmalz, August 31, 2017)

The seismic retrofit report revealed needed work on the middle school building, the walls between the middle school and the gymnasium and the roofs of the gym and lower school building. The cost of the seismic retrofit project was estimated to be approximately $3 million (further analysis found the estimate was inaccurate and the total expense would be closer to $4.5 million). This led to discussions with the Advisory Board, Finance Committee, and the temporary Seismic/Retrofit Committee to hire a firm to walk the school through the process of a Master Plan. This process would allow the school and its constiuents to "Dream Big" and imagine all possiblities for the entire facilities.

After reviewing multiple proposals, the SVDP administration, with assistance from the above volunteer groups, selected the architectural firm Ratcliff Architects. The Master Plan was initiated in January 2017 with all shareholders participating in the "Big Dream." The architects met with parish and school volunteers, teacher groups, and also surveyed parents and students.

During the 2017 -2018 school year, the committee worked closely with the architects to finalize the architectural plans for the seismic retrofit and facilities update for the school site. Approval of the plans from the city building department allowed the school to communicate its proposition to the community. At the State of the School meeting in March 2018, the pastor, along with the architects, presented the plans to the school and greater community.

The PPA was completed and submitted to the city in March 2019. The Preliminary Design met its 100% completion date at the beginning of May 2019.

During the Month of May, CCS Fundraising was charged with running a feasiblity study in conjunction with the parish and reported their findings to the school and school committees on June 10th.

SVDP also accepted RFQ submittals from multiple companies for the Project Manager position. Members of the Construction Committee interviewed the top prospects and selected the company Mack5.