Latest / The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District / Episode #38-Jeff Grose, Executive Director of Capital Projects

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Episode #38-Jeff Grose, Executive Director of Capital Projects · The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the Recess Podcast.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Alan Spicciati, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: The recess is where I tell the stories of the people and places that make Auburn such a great place to raise a family, attend school, work, uh, and uh we we think we have a lot of great stories to get out.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I like to take people behind the scenes.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those episodes uh where you're gonna probably hear about something that you haven't thought much about, which is how we build schools.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: My guest today is Jeff Gross.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's our executive director of Capital Projects, and he is probably one of the most influential people in uh Auburn in a long, long time.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: He has worked for the Auburn School District for 45 years.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to hear that he has had a hand in either building or remodeling every school in the district, and he is a consummate professional, and our community has Jeff Gross to thank for uh many, many years of schools being built to a high standard of quality on time, on or under budget, and making sure that we keep our promises to the community.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jeff's worked very hard to do this.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's very good at his job, and I'm really excited to share him with you now.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Jeff.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Dr.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Spachati.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm so excited.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I'm like tongue-tied because I've been looking forward to this.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you're gonna get to meet Jeff and hear about his work.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is fascinating.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and Jeff uh is probably on the short list of people who have made incredible long-term contributions to the Auburn School District.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So you get to hear all about that, learn a lot about building schools and what it takes, and uh hear Jeff's story, which is uh just really an amazing career.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but we're gonna start with my favorite question.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Jeff.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Who is your favorite teacher and why?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't have one favorite, but my favorite teachers were the ones who were really good teachers, the ones who could make your class interesting and could help you learn it without a whole lot of hard work.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And usually in those classes I got good grades.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: So when I came across those teachers, they're the ones I like to and I would just look forward to going to class every day.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And not everyone did that, but some did, and I had some of those in my career.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we're gonna briefly talk about all the way back to school to now.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um I happen to know that you grew up in Michigan.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh talk about your path to Washington and then eventually into the Auburn School District.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: You bet.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: So um grew up in Michigan, western Michigan, a town called Grand Rapids, went to architecture school at the uh uh University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, received my undergraduate degree there, and decided to take a couple years off, uh, earned some money to go to graduate school.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so during that time off, I was a construction worker.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I worked the trades.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: I started out as a laborer, sometime I drove trucks, and I spent about a year as an iron worker, earned money, um, was accepted to the University of Washington Graduate School for Architecture, but came out here because they also had a building construction undergraduate program.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I was interested in architecture and building construction, so I came out here and did a dual degree, uh, master's in architecture, uh undergraduate in building construction.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, stayed here, I loved here.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: One reason I came out here is because based on one of the some of the best pieces of advice I ever received, I in undergraduate school.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Where's a good place to go to graduate school?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And one of my professors said, go to a graduate school that's good and it's the place you want to settle because that's what you'll end up doing.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I picked a school in a great town.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: I had came out to visit Seattle and I said, I'd love to be here.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Applied, fortunately, got in.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh graduate school, I worked in the summer for an architectural firm, and their c one of their clients was Auburn School District.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So before I worked as an employee of Auburn School District, I worked for the architectural firm uh on the 1978-79 Auburn High School project.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would come out here in the summer and I'd be on the construction side, I'd be going to meetings, uh, and I saw over helped oversee the construction from the architects firm of that project.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was doing that, the project wrapped up, and the deputy superintendent and superintendent fugit said, hey Jeff, we we need to someone on the school district do this full time.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have a position open, we'd we'd like you to apply.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I did.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: I love the people I worked with, and I love the school district, and I got the job, and one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And to the hour in school district.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so if you were paying attention there, Jeff was hired in 1980, uh, which means that he has put in 45 years of service.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh for the the employees know this, every spring the school board uh celebrates years of service.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: This spring I had the honor of handing Jeff his 45-year plaque, and uh there was a rousing applause in our meeting room at the central office uh celebrating that great service.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um I like to tell a story.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was really fortunate to get to know Dr.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Fugit.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So Jim Fugit was superintendent in Auburn from 1974 to 1998.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a record my wife assures me uh I will not reach.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: But it was great to know Dr.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Fugit uh for a few years before he passed away, and he had just these powerful stories about you know superintendents who preceded him and all the things that he was through, uh went through as a superintendent.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And one of his favorite stories uh was that in 1980 he hired Jeff Gross on a one-year contract.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Jeff says, no, it's really two, right?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: You told me you maybe have a little bit sharper recollection, uh, but what a great win for the Auburn School District.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's 1980.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you're hired.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Which project was it that you were hired to do?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was hired to um oversee the renovation of what was then called Troy Field, now Auburn Memorial Stage.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: The stadium bleachers were wood on both sides, and a woods overstructure on one side and a cinder track, um, dirt field.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: I also oversaw those first projects were the um renovation of Terminal Park, then North Auburn, which we came became Dick Skobie.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we also renovated Terminal Park and I think Pioneer during that that that was my first two year two-year um term of duty.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so you are the executive director of Capital Projects.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can you just explain to the audience what does that person do?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: In short, I oversee the building program.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I do.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: But that includes doing strategic planning, master planning for projects, providing information on what it takes and what it costs to build projects, then once we decide we're gonna proceed, and we have funding, overseeing the planning, design, the construction, and close out.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh much of my work, uh while I have a staff, it's a lean-mean staff, we work with a variety of consultants to assist us, architects, engineers, legal advice, planners, and so on.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, basically I'm in charge of the building program.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you've been doing it for quite some time.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So how many Auburn School District schools have you been a part of building?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Either major remodel or building the one from scratch for all 24 schools.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I went and I knew you were gonna ask this question, so I went back.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: I have uh overseen um the from the beginning of the planning of of and building of a new 10 schools, 10 new schools, and then six replacement schools.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So what you see out there now standing on the street, I've I've been overseeing that project from the cradle to the grave for that's two-thirds of our schools, and then remodeled the rest.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so Jeff Gross, he's very humble.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he has built Auburn, really.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: You go around town, and no matter where you are, you see a school that that he has been in charge of building, uh, or at least oversaw major renovations and uh projects.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it's an amazing legacy that that you're leaving in the in the district.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and I mentioned that you're leaving.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um hopefully that's public now.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think everybody knows.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we are just unbelievably fortunate to have had 45 years with you.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: You in the process of doing these schools, uh, I am sure you had by now have committed to memory the steps that it takes to build a school from beginning to end.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, maybe we could use as an example, I think our public knows, but I'll say it one more time.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: We currently have 43 portable classrooms at the middle school level.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's roughly a thousand students learning in portables, which means that we have enough students today to fill up a new middle school on day one.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that tells us that we need a new school.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jeff helps to chair the ad hoc committees when we've done that ahead of a bond, and and the the community represented at the uh at those meetings agreed that we need a new middle school.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: We've been designing a fifth middle school.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so talk about the whole process from acquiring the land to when we cut the ribbon and open the school and uh welcome students.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: So uh before you build a school, you have to have a place to put it.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: That now is one of the hardest things to do in the building process.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's very little undeveloped land to build our schools.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Our schools need anywhere from 10 to 35 acres, depending on what type of school they are.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a that alone is a long process to secure a piece of property.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Then obviously, you work with a school district community saying, what should we build?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: A middle school, elementary schools, and usually the population distribution and the student distribution tells us where we need to do it.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we work with the ad hoc committee, we say, okay, this is what we do, and uh what do we need?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And they say, okay, we need a new middle school, we need that within seven years, it needs to be built.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: I then take that information and do kind of initial master planning, and that is okay, how much does it cost to build a middle school?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: What is how many kids is it's gonna provide?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, where is it gonna go?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: What are the basic requirements?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: How do we get funding?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Once we've made those decisions and either secured funding or have a path to funding, we then start the we call the pre-design work, and that's planning work.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: We don't even start drawing on a paper or computer now, we do.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have to plan what the project needs, and we bring in people from all around the district to give us input on what the school will be.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: We do the planning work and then we bring an architect on board and they're cadre of engineers and they start the design process.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that design process for middle school is two years.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it takes an extensive amount of time to do the design and get the permits.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we do the design.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we work with a uh design review committee of school district individuals to oversee it and work with my team.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: We then um secure a contractor either through a selection process like the general contractor construction manager process called GCCM, or we go out and bid the project to get a contractor based on low bid.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: We start construction, we build it, we open it up.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: During that construction, we do a lot of work behind the scenes to buy all the furniture and equipment we need to uh support that school.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: If it's a new school, we need to buy instructional materials, computers, uh technology, get that done.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: We we wrap it up, we do close out, and then we watch the project for a year to make sure all warranty items are corrected.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then the last step, and the most important step, is we we do a post-occupancy review of the project to see what went well and what could we have done better, and we use that information on our next project.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I'm hoping that I can get across here that the community will understand is the quality of our building projects and our process.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so can you talk about, you know, we we like to say all of our projects have come in on time and on or under budget.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly that was true for the last eight schools in the 2016 bond.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and thanks to our incredibly supportive and generous community for helping us to make that happen.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to wanna shout that out.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: But it goes deeper than that, it's not just an accident.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um we've done some really intentional things, I think, to improve the quality of the schools over the years.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about uh i without getting too technical, because I'm gonna throw a technical term in here in a minute.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about the Ed Specs committee.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but what I've observed is that it's really about how do we improve on the last one.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So talk about that committee, talk about um the the work that happens uh from the professionals we contract with also looking to improve the processes, um, and just share how we get better as a school district of building schools, because I think it's a story that uh needs to be told that I'm proud of, and uh I've I've a lot of times taken it on that you know people hear government and they think, oh, you know, it's you know, they just collect a paycheck or whatever, and it's really impressive, like the level of accountability and the level of continuous improvement is really I think uh a standard that we have set in our capital projects.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So talk about how we improve.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'll start out describing what we do to make sure we get it right from the get-go, and in that process, we're continually learning from the past.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: So after we've done the master planning and decided with concurrence with the ad hoc committee board, let's say we're gonna buy, we need to build a new middle school, middle school number five.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be for 850 kids, it's gonna be this part of town.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: We then convene a group of individuals with specialty in each part of that building.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: And they're called our design review subcommittees.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And we have those subcommittees, the purposes are to design in detail the functional requirements of every space to make sure that space does exactly what we have.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So middle school number five, we had 30 subcommittees.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: We meet with them, each one individually.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's usually an average of five to six people on each committee.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: We bring in, it's for a science area, we bring our best middle school science teachers in.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: We bring an administrator in who knows about science, and we put together the design requirements, we create a document in the in the school district architecture world, it's called educational specifications, but it's like the recipe book for building a school.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that recipe book will have 350 pages, and it says, okay, for a science room, this is how many kids we need to have, this is the times could be used, this is how many instructors, this is how many seats we have, this is what the cabinets need to be, this are the number of electrical outlets.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: We do that level of detail for every space, including restrooms, custodial closets, kitchens, the outdoor playground, the play fields, the parking lot.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: It is a process that is rarely done in schools anymore.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: We still do it, and um, it is a really good way to make sure we get it right and we learn from mistakes in the past.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um I know it's really done because when we go on with these projects with architectural firms, they say, God, this is just such a great document to have.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: It gets us, it gets us so much gets us where we have.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it gets back to earlier, you said it's important we finish our projects on time within budget.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the third thing I always add to that, and we do exactly what we told the community we would do.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's very important.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Remind me, there's another improvement process that we bake in.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that uh, for example, we built seven elementary schools in in the last bond, uh, five rebuilds and two new ones.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And after each school, we were able to learn from the process and actually shave some costs off of some of the schools that were downstream based on what we learned when we did the first and second project.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I'm talking about?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, thank you.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's I call them our our lessons learned meeting.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a team of designers, architects, engineers, and a team of cont uh a contractor who have just built this school.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, for our last round, though that team was doing our next school.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: So when we finished up um Dixcobia Elementary School, one of our first elementaries, we set we set aside a half day, we all get in a big room and we go through the project step by step and say, what did we do good?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: What really worked well?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: We put that on the list, we have someone on the board, and they say, What could we have done better?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I say, okay, we should have done this better, and uh and the scheduling of the sequence of our steel, we get to that level of detail, and then we say, how can we do it better on the next job?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: We put together a formal list and we take that right to the next project and say, okay, we want to make sure we do these things the next time around.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And better quite often means uh get the same result for less money.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's about efficiencies.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just, well, what else would we like to add and you know, gold plate this thing.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's actually a really uh efficiency-minded process.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I I was really impressed as I watched and we went through and we were able to make change orders that actually in some cases saved our public money.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh excellent job.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it occurred to me thinking about you know where Auburn was in 1980, where the world was, uh, the kind of technology we all used or did not use that long ago.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: What has changed in the job you I mean it must be immense in 45 years?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what has changed about how you do your job?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: About how I do your job, not how buildings have changed.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, that would be really interesting too.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, in terms of building change, in 1980, when we were remodeling uh terminal park, we were really careful so that we could when on the remodel process, we could reuse the slate chalkboards.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: These were giant pieces of slate that they drew on.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we spent all this money to take out these large pieces of slate from the old school and put it in the new school.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: So the remodeled terminal park had slate chalkboards.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: After about five years, the um we started chalkboards and then it was whiteboards, and now we have smart boards, and now we have computers.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's just one little microcosm of the change in things.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: In terms of my job, um, it is much more efficient to do a lot of things now than we did in the past.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna really date myself, but we had no computers when I started.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: We did not, their spreadsheets had not been used outside of maybe the various highest echo of universities.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: No s no spreadsheets, no computers, um, no word processing, um, none of the stuff we're using right now.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we do that, and and now we just are able to do our tasks more efficiently, um, especially as you look at the design and construction things.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Their technology has improved so much.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you could spend hours talking about that.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it's fascinating.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you could tell so many stories.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And do you have any stories that that come to mind that would be interesting to the public?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know you have so many experiences.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: When I first started working for the school district, one of the projects um I just touched upon a little, I I worked on as with the architectural From was the building of Lakeview Elementary School.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that school is surrounded by woods.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's been in a wooden area.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: We have a little bit of residential on one side.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful site.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's cut out of the woods.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that was uh a forest that was maybe 20 years old.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we they we came in there and I was there when they, after they cut the trees down, they were grading it.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: We built the school and we had this the trees surrounding the school.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: I don't get up there very often, but we had administrators meeting there maybe six months ago, and I went out there and I went and walked out in the playground where it's surrounded by woods, and those 20-year-old trees are now 65-year-old, giant, huge, beautiful trees.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh my gosh.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Look at look at look at what happens in our world.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Look at what happens when we build a school.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: We build a good school, it's around for a long time.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: The school is still here as we built it, and we now we just the trees are just getting bigger.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have so many good stories, um, funny stories, things that happened, um that when we when we remodel a building, I would meet, and these are major remodels, or we replace a building while there are schools there.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I would meet with the staff and say, okay, we're gonna we're gonna remodel your school.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna be it's gonna be problems of some time.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate your patience, and they're always been supportive.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I guarantee you, before this job is done, we will during construction cut your power by mistake.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: We will we will we will break a water line and say, so just expect that this is gonna happen, and it almost always did.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and and they were great.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: They were great.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um across the board when we've done remodels, the staff in this district are so good.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: And the other funny thing, the people least bothered by these major renovations were the kids.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: They really did they thought it was cool.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Some teachers were quite, you know, on edge about it.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: The kids, they just went along with the flaw, and I've always loved that.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jeff, do you have a favorite Auburn School District project or one you're most proud of?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I'm proud and and favorite are um are are two different ones.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: So um I my favorite project is our current project.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's because when you are working on the design and then the construction of a school, uh of uh especially a school, any building, if you've done a house, you've done an office building, it's exciting to do that, but especially for school where you have all these kids are going to use it when you're done and the great staff.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: The most current one is exciting, it's rewarding, it's invigorating because we have a new group of planning people, planning group in.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're and we're learning from our past lessons.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: I've always said, and you've heard me say this, every project we do is better than the last, even if the last one was just six months ago.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that's just exciting.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So um those are my favorite ones, my uh the one I'm working on, but the one I'm most proud of is is Auburn High School.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when we replaced that in 2012, we took a school that was built in 1950 and then in other parts until 1985.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: So all these different parts.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we had to replace that school on the same piece of property without the kids leaving the property.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we had to figure out how to build a school while the other one stayed in operation, and as part of it, we said the PAC is a gem we need to keep, and Auburn High School's auto shop is fantastic, maybe the best high school auto shop in the state.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: We said we're gonna keep those.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: So there's these two pieces at different parts of the site.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: We have to build a school around it, we have to have it face the street, we have to put the parking in the play fields.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: We did it.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: It was a tough, tough project to to coordinate.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: The kids were great.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: We had we had toilets overflowing in the old school because we hit a sewer line and they had to go to another part.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh everything happened, but we did it and we got it done on time.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when we said the dis we talked about the design school, we said the architect, we want a beautiful traditional brick school.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's what they did.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that school is is beautiful and is so functionally well planned.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's beautiful outside and inside.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: I just couldn't be proud of anything in that project.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is a great note to end on.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you love all of our schools uh and and don't play favorites, but um I would say that school site and the way it's designed has become, if not the center of the Auburn community, certainly one of them.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that large student parking lot is full, you know, probably over 300 days a year, uh, because something's happening at the performing arts center, because there's you know a camp or an event in the gym, because there is a football game, uh, because actually some of our neighbors use it for events.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's truly a multi-purpose, uh, in the best sense of the word, uh flexible home to you know the arts, to activities, to sports, to our swimming pool, uh, which is also fairly unique.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of districts still own a pool, and to tie all of that together in a coherent way, as if it had been planned that way all along, is just brilliant.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I think that's a wonderful example.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for sharing.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna finish up on a on a fun note and take you way, way back to your elementary school days.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jeff Gross, what was your favorite thing to do at recess?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: You've probably never had this answer.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was playing bombardment.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like something that is no longer allowed to happen in schools.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: What is bombardment?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's dodgeball.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's dodgeball, it's dodgeball, but not with those rubber things.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was with with like hard balls about the side of a soccer ball.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I can tell you that it really became popular in fourth grade, and then in the fifth and sixth grade, it got so vicious at my school they banned it during during recess.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so you're the ones, and then none of us can have fun anymore.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, that's a great story.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's been really fun and very informative visiting with you.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jeff, as I mentioned, has been with the Auburn School District for 45 years.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: He retires at the end of the calendar year.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're gonna miss him greatly.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: His work uh stands all across Auburn, and uh I know I am incredibly grateful uh for his service, and I think I speak for so many people that uh we wish you nothing but the best in retirement.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I knowing Jeff and his work ethic, uh he will go hard to the finish.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I look forward to uh the remaining days we have as colleagues and uh and then just a wonderful retirement for you and your wife.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very, very much.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for being on the podcast.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna ask that you please, please tell the story.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you have been touched by a school, you remember a school that was rebuilt in your neighborhood, uh, you attended a school, worked at a school, we tore down your favorite school.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh please share this podcast with others uh because uh I think if you look around uh certainly the Puget Sound region, uh the quality of our building projects and delivering on what we promised it stands alone.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think Auburn's track record uh may well be the best.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I s that's uh not me bragging, that is a compliment to my guest, Jeff Gross.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: So please get the word out.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Help us share, and I would appreciate if you get the word out and share this podcast.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: That will be a wrap uh thanks to Vicky Alonzo, who produces the podcast, and until next time, I will see you on the Recess Podcast.