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LOS LUNAS — Leaders at the School of Dreams Academy have long hoped to be able to build a permanent bricks-and-mortar campus for the charter school.
That hope took a small step towards reality last month when the SODA Governing Council approved the preliminary contract for architectural services from Albuquerque-based design firm RMKM Architecture.
SODA founder and Superintendent Mike Ogas said RMKM Architecture will update SODA’s master plan and “get a couple of topographical boundary surveys and some administrative kinds of things going on to deal with the updating our master plan.”
“They are extremely experienced. This is for the preliminary renderings and updating our master plan and getting things moving off the ground,” Ogas said. “This is not for approval of the entire architectural services that are going to be needed in terms of making all the detailed plans and that kind of thing. That will come later. We’ll discuss that when that time comes.”
Ogas said the total amount for this preliminary design work, roughly $176,000, will be paid out of a legislative appropriation for planning and design the school received two sessions ago. The cost includes administrative fees of $2,179.85
“This is going to go along with the new appraisal that they’re going to have done on the current facility and the proposed facility,” Ogas said. “So I’d request approval so that we can get the ball moving and get a purchase order started so we can start planning and designing this school.”
He emphasized that detailed plans will come in the future and depend on many factors, including the size of building SODA gets approval to build. Ogas also said the school’s current master plan is less than 10 years old but requires change now because SODA has acquired the entire 20-acre plot of land it sits on.
“The overall plan is to develop and have a facility master plan that includes the whole school pre-K through grade 12,” he said. “And how that’s going to be laid out on the entire site.”
The motion was approved unanimously and now awaits approval from the New Mexico Public Education Department. Ogas said work on the new master plan will likely begin in November.
