KAIROS BREAKS GROUND ON NEW LEARNING CENTER
The next year promises to be a big one for Kairos Public School, as the tuition-free public charter school builds a new campus in the Brighton Landing neighborhood, expands to high school and opens a new independent learning center.
The latter is the first phase of this new era for Kairos, and ground was broken on its 27acre site off Sunflower Street Friday to signify the start of the construction process.
“Just about six months ago, we were out here casting vision, getting a $125,000 check from the Silicon Schools Fund foundation to get this project started,” Jared Austin, cofounder and executive director of Kairos, told the crowd. “(It) laid some groundwork for us, now we're getting ready to break ground.”
Austin told The Reporter the project started in 2018 when the school was approached by
The New Home Company, developers of Brighton Landing, and was told they had land that was zoned for a school next to the neighborhood's public park, Nashe Mesto Park.
“They heard a lot of great things about the high-quality program of Kairos, and they said they wanted to provide a highquality school within the Brighton Landing community neighborhood,” he said.
Kairos initially purchased 11 acres on the site for $700,000 and this week closed on an additional 16 acres for $1 million, resulting in an overall price tag of $1.8 million.
The overall build will be done in three phases, with the first phase consisting of the new Kairos Innovative Scholars Program (KISP) Learning Center, the second phase focusing on the TK-8 campus which would either be relocated from its current Elm Street location or serve as a second location, and the third phase consisting of Kairos' first-ever high school, with space available
for a potential sports complex and possible teacher housing.
The learning center would provide a larger permanent space for KISP, an independent study program that serves approximately
150 students.
“It's a learning center where they can come and take workshops, meet with teachers,” KISP Coordinator Leslie Shebley said.
The program provides enrichment opportunities for students in disciplines such as art and science in an effort to “bring the students together to be able to have fun with their learning and develop relationships,” Austin said. The current building for the program is across the street from Three Oaks Community Center, but Austin said the program is maxed out.
The new space would allow Kairos to serve twice as many students.
“We're hoping to have twice the amount of opportunities to build relationships and an awesome learning experience for the kids,” he said.
The design for the campus was created by Studio W Architects in San Jose, the campus construction will be done by DesCor Builders out of Rancho Cordova, and former NFL linebacker and Fairfield High School graduate Desmond Bishop and his
wife, Geeta, are providing consultation on the sports complex.
Additonally, Austin said Kairos was working with Sustainable Solano on developing a community garden where students can grow vegetables and serve them to low-income areas on a weekly basis.
Austin hopes to have the overall project completed by next spring. Shebley encouraged families to drive by the site to view the process.
“We're so glad that you're all along for the ride,” she said.