The Tulare County Office of Education has started construction on the Tim A. Hire Education Campus Expansion in Visalia.
A May 12 groundbreaking ceremony launched the first phase of the project, which will include the construction of three new buildings: the Special Education Center, the Library Media Center and the Esports Arena.
The initial estimated cost for the Special Education Center, which will be located at 11535 Ave. 264, is $15 million. The center will be paid for partially with Tulare County Office of Education special education funds and partially with state school facility funds.
The initial estimated combined cost of the Library Media Center and Esports Arena is $10 million. It will be paid for from the Certificate of Participation funds that are also funding the construction of the Mooney Administration Campus expansion.
The new 20,868-square-foot Special Education Center, which will take over the role of the Occupational Training Program facility adjacent to Golden West High School in Visalia, will have 10 classrooms that can accommodate up to 80 students, as well as outdoor features such as a half-court basketball court, a music garden, a playground and a solar shade canopy.
The center will “create a space where those kids can really get the services that they need to the quality that folks in Tulare County expect,” Tulare County Superintendent of Schools Tim Hire said.
The new 10,191-square-foot Library Media Center, which will take over from the current facility at TCOE’s Doe Avenue Complex, will include a large media room, elementary resources room, robotics lab, processing room, and three offices, with space for workstations.
“We have one of the top robotics teams in the state at (University Preparatory High School),” Hire said. “They have also not only competed and represented Tulare County, but they are also coaching and assisting other schools in our county to develop a robotics program.”
The new 2,861-square-foot Esports Arena will accommodate up to 50 students competing in five-person teams. The facility will have two Nintendo Switch stations and one teacher station. The new Media Arts Room, attached to the arena, will house shoutcasting, podcasting and other media activities.
“If you’ve been following what esports are doing these days, colleges and universities are giving scholarships,” Hire said. “For me, it’s about the relationships…What other way do we have that brings the star football quarterback into a relationship with a student who is not athletic but loves technology and is a gamer?”
The first Tulare County Office of Education esports tournament attracted 27 teams, a number Hire expects will grow.
“We’re expanding into high school and might be the central region for CIF because it is a CIF-sanctioned event,” he said.
The Education Campus property
In 2013, Tulare County Office of Education acquired 10 acres from the Liberty School District when it relocated to a new campus.
“The existing buildings for that school were immediately used by our Special Services Division to house programs such as Bright Start and Bright Future,” Hire said. “We have our audiology facility here. In 2015, the Planetarium was built and completed.
In 2023, Tulare County Office of Education was presented with the opportunity to buy the 30 acres that surrounded the 10-acre parcel, according to Hire.
“At the same time, we were renewing our partnership with College of the Sequoias, which currently is where University Prep High School has their classes,” he added. “We were informed that COS needed to take back that bit of their campus due to growing enrollment and expanding programs at COS.”
UPHS will move into a 12-classroom facility on the campus, following a renovation of a former Liberty School building on the site. The building will include an administration office and a multi-purpose room with a kitchen. The facility will also include a basketball court and field.
Tulare County Office of Education is already planning the second phase of its Education Campus.
“At a future date, not far behind this project, we’ll be building a 500-seat capacity performing arts center,” Hire said. “We’ll eventually have the performing arts theater that will be complete with a scene shop, so they can learn other things besides acting and dancing and singing and performing, but all of the technical stuff that goes on to make those performances happen.
“(It is) quite an adventure and quite an undertaking, and I couldn’t be prouder to be standing here today representing all of our staff and our partners and our students in making these kinds of things happen for them,” Hire said.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare County Office of Education breaks ground on new education campus
Reporting by Steve Pastis, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
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