Proposed June 2026-Dec. 2027
Lower School Campus Enhancement Project: Proposed June 2026-Dec. 2027
Harker is embarking on a significant construction project to enhance our existing lower school campus. The primary feature of this project is building a new major academic building in the southern section of campus, which will utilize parts of the existing field and a portion of the current grade 1-3 playground area.
OVERVIEW
This building will house many exciting features:
- 12 new classrooms, including dedicated rooms for K-3 and grade 3-5 music classes, which in turn will allow us to remove the existing music trailer.
- A beautiful, 4,000-square-foot library complex, with a dedicated library classroom.
- A multipurpose room, allowing for a dedicated space for parent meetings, community receptions, overflow recreational use (during the school day and after school), and some smaller performances.
- A conference and work room for our staff.
- Underground parking for more than 30 vehicles.
Additionally, this project will include:
- Creating a new play park to replace the existing grade 1-3 blacktop space.
- Replacing the current sports field with improvements made with drainage for all-season use.
- Revamping drop-off zones on both sides of campus, with longer on-campus queuing spaces to reduce cars on neighboring roads, and roughly 15 more on-campus surface parking spaces.
Areas Impacted
During the construction phase, the following areas and functions will be impacted:
CLASSROOMS and LIBRARY
All our existing classrooms will remain in use throughout the construction process, and there will be construction fencing separating the work zone from the rest of the campus. We will be removing the current library at the end of the coming school year. We should have use of it until the beginning of May, but there will be a period when the existing library will no longer be in use, and the new library will not yet be completed. We will continue to offer our library curriculum, and we will provide students access to books, but both will be somewhat constrained by space limitations for a few months.
ATHLETIC FIELDS and PLAYGROUNDS
Only part of the athletic field will be useable. This will require us to modify some P.E. and recess activities, and we might alter schedules a bit to stagger use of outdoor spaces. Towards the end of the project, the entire field will be replaced. We hope that this can be done during the second summer of construction, but we may be without a field altogether towards the end of next school year, or for the beginning of the one after it. For our interscholastic sports in grades 4 and 5, we will likely bus students to an off-site location. Additionally, only part of the grade 1-3 playground will be available during the construction period. We will utilize the grade 4-5 playground when available, as well as other spaces around campus for recess for the younger students.
PARKING and DROP-OFF/PICKUP
We will not have field parking for events for the duration of the construction project. We are exploring alternative ways to manage parking and neighborhood traffic flow in the absence of field parking, and we may move some events to other campuses or to a webinar platform. The entire back loading zone will be used for construction staging and will be unavailable for the duration of the project. We have successfully tested alternate drop-off and pickup routines utilizing St. Tomas Aquino and will continue to refine this, as needed, for the duration of the project.
PUBLIC UPDATES
Neighbors wishing to be updated on this project can email neighbors@harker.org to be added to our neighbors email list. Any other questions can be sent to communications@harker.org. The school will keep the current Harker community updated on the project through internal email updates and meetings.