This past December, Breakthrough Public Schools’ Woodland Hills campus broke ground on a $2.9 million gymnasium and multi-purpose facility. The 10,000-square-foot expansion aims to improve student life, educational infrastructure and enhance the surrounding neighborhood.
For Woodland Hills, one of five public charter schools in Breakthrough’s network serving students from kindergarten to eighth grade, the expansion is a long-awaited solution to space limitations at the school. With 659 students, Woodland Hills has no dedicated cafeteria, limited office and storage space, and an undersized gym.
“We needed it because there’s a space constraint within our building. Right now, students are eating inside of the classrooms, and we’re sharing space from elementary to middle school scholars, so that means that gym has to overlap, so that way all of our scholars can have an equitable experience,” said Ron Brownrigg, principal of Woodland Hills.
Space Constraints at Woodland Hills
Like all Breakthrough schools, Woodland Hills provides free breakfast and lunch to students throughout the school week. However, without a cafeteria, Woodland Hills students and staff must leave their classrooms to pick up meals, return to their classrooms to eat and then transition the classroom back into a learning environment. While this system works best for the school now, it cuts into time that could otherwise be used for additional instruction.
“It takes time to get the kids out and then it takes time for them to get their food, get it checked and then go back, versus being in a traditional line with the cafeteria food,” explained Brownrigg. “All of those minutes that add up, a lot of time could be spent for them doing something like reading, math or science experiments, whatever it is that our teachers can do at that time to maximize their learning.”
Once the new gym and multipurpose facility are completed, the current gym will become the school’s designated lunch space. However, the school also faces challenges beyond meal service.
“We’re literally at capacity,” Matt Smith, director of operations at Woodland Hills, said. “One big issue we have here is that we do not have adequate storage space, we don’t have many offices here so this is literally creating more opportunity.’’
The site plan for the expansion lays out a dedicated area for office space, storage, a multipurpose space and restrooms, which according to a press release from Breakthrough will help provide expanded programming capabilities.
“Having extra space will make my job a lot easier. I’ll be able to meet certain requests way faster, way smoother and way easier with this extra space and in turn that trickles down back to the kids, because we’re here for the kids,” said Smith.
Even in its intended role, the current gym at Woodland Hills has limitations for athletics. With minimal seating for spectators and mismatched basketball hoops, the gym isn’t meeting the needs of the school’s sports teams and is unable to host home games. However, the new gym will provide a significant upgrade.
“What we’re building here, this is a real deal gym, wood floor, seating for 200 people. When we can host basketball games, volleyball games here on campus, we can bring families to campus… this opens up a whole new world,” Matt Sattler, chief operating officer at Breakthrough Public Schools, explained.
New Facility Breaks Ground
To make room for the expansion, Breakthrough acquired a funeral home on an adjacent lot alongside Union Avenue. Once finished the new facility will be connected to the existing school, positioned toward the back of the lot on the Union Avenue side, with its entryway facing Crane Avenue.
The expansion was made possible through fundraising efforts led by Friends of Breakthrough (FOB), a non-profit development and advocacy organization that conducts fundraising, advocacy, and alumni activities to support the operations and growth of Breakthrough Public Schools. “We have the advantage of having a very good fundraising and advocacy arm, the Friends of Breakthrough team is behind the fundraising, and was able to secure the dollars for this,” said Sattler.
Sattler also highlights key contributors to fundraising efforts, including the Louise H. & David S. Ingalls Foundation, the Bruening Foundation, and the Thompson Family Foundation.
A notable contribution came from Larry Orwin, a vice chair on the Friends of Breakthrough Schools board, who raised more than $250,000 for the project by participating in the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon. The 135-mile marathon, known for its difficulty, starts at 282 feet below sea level in California’s Death Valley and ends at more than 8,300 feet above sea level at the Mount Whitney trailhead.
At the December 4, 2024, groundbreaking, several FOB board members, Breakthrough leadership, and members of Marous Brothers Construction, the firm responsible for designing and building the expansion, joined Principal Brownrigg and the Woodland Hills school community to celebrate another step closer to the expansion which they plan to be a valuable resource for students and the broader community.
“We’re anchored in the neighborhood. I talk about our buildings as our forever homes,” said Sattler. “You make an investment like this to say that we’re going to be here for a long time, and we’re going to serve the community for a long time.”
More than a Gym
With the added space the expansion will create a hub allowing the school to host events supporting the community. “We will be able to provide opportunities that we’ve had in the past, with career days for parents and outside neighboring partners… which is invaluable for our community, because at the end of the day, it’s not only about the students but the families as well,” explained Brownrigg.
In addition to hosting events, the new facility will also serve as a valuable civic resource, allowing Woodland Hills to once again serve as a polling location. “It’s super important to point out this can be a community resource, so we’ll open up the space again, as a polling location, which we do at one of our other schools, an opportunity for more people to come in and see the school,” Sattler explained.
In early February, the expansion project was presented to the Board of Zoning Appeals, with hopes of beginning construction in the coming weeks. The expansion project is expected to be completed during the 2025 – 2026 school year.
For Principal Brownrigg, this expansion has been a long time coming. “I’ve been here 13 years, I remember the gym before it looked the way it looks now,” he said. “The very first thing I’m most excited about is the ribbon cutting, because it’s literally a dream come true. To be able to share that experience with our scholars and have them build pride and say hey all these people all these different things that went into this was for you and to see their faces light up, it’s pretty invaluable.”
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