Rita Ledesma Elementary School Celebrates 10 Years of Excellence

San Jose, California

As the first homebuilder sponsored turn key development of a public school in California, Rita Ledesma Elementary was delivered in 1999.

NewSchools founder Ed Eastridge was retained in 1992 by a large homebuilder to develop a more beneficial delivery system for public school facilities paid for in large part by homebuilders.  California's complex system for the approval and funding of school facilities caused this project to pioneer a number of new techniques.

NewSchools provided comprehensive consultation and development services, beginning with a negotiated Mitigation Agreement between the District and the homebuilder.  Unlike monetary value based Mitigation Agreement, Eastridge utilized the NewSchools created "Design and Construct to a Program and Budget" approach, describing the facility in detail through educational specifications and program.  A building design was then commissioned and managed with the constructor to assure both ultimate cost and quality of design.