On Thursday night Bernice Mathews Elementary School held a meeting to discuss scheduled renovations and upgrades to the school.

The Washoe County School District is preparing for these extensive renovations and upgrades as a part of the 2023 modernization plan.

This plan is set to help renovate or upgrade every school in the district within 15 years.

In 2022, the Washoe County School District started on a journey to plan for substantial improvements to the facilities and educational experience for all 61,000 students in the district called the Facility Modernization Plan.

The meeting on Thursday was for the community, to give them a chance to come by and check out the designs they have planned for the school and hold space for questions they may have.

We asked the district what may be in store for the school.

Tami Zimmerman, the Chief Facility Management Officer for the WCSD says “People can see an addition to the school to provide additional classrooms, and we have some special programs in there that’s going to expand into that school. They’ll see a new steam lab that will connect to the main hallway, so they’ll see the front of the school embracing that and be welcoming to them.”

Every school will be renovated differently, this could be big or small.

Zimmerman adds “Every school gets certain items that will be put into there, but then there’s also some items that they choose as a school themselves that they might need. And so, we’ll be respectful of those and look into those options as well with them.”

The estimated cost is between 10 and 12 million dollars. They've presented this number to the Capital Fund Protection Committee back in December, and they're still working on designs and estimates as they move forward.

Zimmerman says “We’re looking to go to the June Capital Funding Protection Committee to ask for the budget for construction on this project and then we’ll be putting it out in the summer, most likely in August, and then starting construction immediately after we get that bid done and awarded as a guaranteed maximum price for construction.”

They also expect a year to a year and a half for construction starting in August-September.