FOLSOM—Plans for a new elementary school in the growing Folsom Ranch community advanced this week as the Folsom Cordova Unified School District Board of Education approved a proposal from the Cumming Group to provide value engineering services for the project.
The board’s decision authorizes staff to move forward with a contract not to exceed $254,828, funded through developer fees. The services are aimed at strengthening the design and construction process for what is currently known as Folsom Ranch Elementary School #3, a much-anticipated addition to accommodate enrollment growth in the district’s southern planning area.
District staff emphasized that Cumming Group was selected through a competitive qualifications process last year to support both existing and future projects. Their expertise in value engineering will now be applied early in the Folsom Ranch project timeline, with the goal of reducing costs while enhancing the functionality, durability, and overall performance of the new school.
According to Chief Operations Officer Matt Washburn in the supporting board documents, the proactive approach will involve close collaboration between Cumming Group, district staff, and the design and construction teams. Washburn noted the process will help the district achieve budget certainty, resolve potential design conflicts before they become costly, and ensure the final product is both cost-effective and high quality.
The approved proposal outlines a three-phase process: pre-workshop preparation to review design documents and establish cost models; a collaborative value engineering workshop to generate and evaluate design options; and post-workshop follow-up to finalize recommendations and confirm their integration into the project. Cumming Group will also develop a life-cycle cost analysis for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, measuring long-term operational expenses and comparing design alternatives to identify the most sustainable and efficient solutions.
Board President David Reid also weighed in following the approval, sharing his perspective in a post-meeting social media statement.
“The FCUSD School Board approved two contracts for Value Engineering Services for our next elementary school and for Cordova High’s new gateway building which will contain its office, library, and classrooms,” Reid wrote.
Reid explained, “Value engineering is a systematic process of analyzing the architectural plans of future buildings to identify less expensive materials and features without sacrificing functionality or safety.”
He continued, “Why is this important? Simply stated, FCUSD’s facility needs outpace our current ability to pay for their construction. We need to be responsible fiscal stewards of taxpayer funds to make sure we can stretch dollars as far as we can.”
Reid said his concerns stem from previous projects that included design elements he felt were unnecessary. “In the past, I have been critical of some construction projects that I felt had unneeded ‘bells and whistles.’ One example — Mangini Ranch Elementary and Alder Creek Elementary have retractable glass walls facing the hallway that can open up to expand the classroom into the hallway. These glass walls cost more than having traditional dry wall construction and have additional maintenance costs. The idea was to have more collaboration space with increased functionality. The reality is that they are seldom used. In my humble opinion, NOT a good use of taxpayer dollars.”
Those experiences, Reid said, shaped his push for change. “Based on examples like this, I strongly advocated to my colleagues on the School Board that we retain value engineering services for future projects (and we have a lot of future projects coming). They agreed and we made this an expectation moving forward.”
“But to be clear,” Reid added, “value engineering does not mean we will have lower quality facilities. FCUSD has and continues to have high standards to match our goal of being the best school district in the State of California.”
District leaders said the early involvement of the Cumming Group is expected to add significant value by balancing cost efficiency with long-term performance. In addition to construction feasibility, the review will also consider end-user needs, safety, adaptability, maintenance, and environmental impacts.
The new elementary school is part of the district’s broader strategy to serve the rapidly expanding Folsom Ranch area, where thousands of new homes are under construction. With board approval secured, the value engineering process is set to begin this fall and continue into 2026.
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