The currently approved District Five-Year Plan provides for a new elementary school in the Plant City area to ensure the availability of satisfactory classrooms for the projected student enrollment in K-12 programs. The Board previously acquired property for the school in conjunction with and adjacent to the site for High School "UUU" currently under construction. Capacity is needed by the 2009-10 school year to relieve overcrowding at Bryan, Cork, Dover, Knights, and Lopez Elementary Schools. (Other Area 6 schools may be impacted.) Appointment of an architect for design of the new facility is needed now to allow completion of the facility prior to the 2009-10 school year.

When feasible, the reuse of an existing, proven design is the fastest, most cost-effective way to accomplish new school design. Florida Statutes encourage district school boards to reuse school designs to save money when constructing new schools, and allow direct appointment of design professionals when reusing plans. To select a prototype for reuse at Elementary "J", a committee comprised of representatives of the District's maintenance and construction departments, the Chief Facilities Officer and the area director for Area 6 evaluated four recently completed elementary schools. The committee toured each of the four existing elementary school prototypes, collected input from the respective principals and maintenance supervisors, and received a presentation from each respective architect on the potential adaptation of his design to the site for Elementary "J". After consideration of several factors, including maintainability, functionality, energy efficiency, construction cost, and congruence with the adjacent high school design, the committee concluded that reuse of the design of Hammond Elementary School would provide the best solution for Elementary "J". Appointment of Holmes Hepner and Associates Architects to adapt the Hammond Elementary School design for Elementary "J", for a fixed fee of $467,400 is therefore recommended.