Court presented with designs for juvenile facility
Sunday, November 02, 2008 -

by Stewart James
editorialdesk@insidetxbiz.com

There are approximately 80 students that attend class on third floor of the University Courts Facility located at 1800 N. Graves St. in McKinney. The students are part of the Juvenile Justice Alternative Educational Program (JJAEP). Students are educated at the facility for up to 180 days.

Barton Drake of VAI Architects presented the Collin County Commissioners Court with plans for the new Juvenile Justice Alternative Education facility. The development will house the education program, probation and administrative offices currently housed at the University Courts Facility.

Built in 1957, the 177,105 square foot courts facility, formerly a hospital, will be sold by the county. The approximately 12-acre property has a total market value of $17,661,236, according to the Central Appraisal District of Collin County.

On Novmber 7, 2007, Collin County voters approved a $76.3 million bond to fund four facility projects, the juvenile education facility being one of them. Of the $76.3 million, $10.6 is set aside for the new facility.

The planned 45,000 square feet facility will be located on Community Drive adjacent to the existing juvenile detention facility.

Construction is anticipated to begin on July 1, 2009 and be completed before the following school year. The development and design phase will be finished by the end of the year with bids for construction to go out in April 2009.

The facility will have two ‘pods’ with eight classrooms in each. Each classroom can house 20 students. Additional classroom space is included in the architectural plan allowing up to 480 students.

“We’ve tried to take a long-term view in how the project might expand over time,” Drake said. “The classroom pods themselves are entirely self contained. The classrooms stretch out of either side with the computer lab in the center.”

“As your population grows, and we expect our population to double, you are going to have more kids in the program,” said Phyllis Cole, Collin County Commissioner – Present 1. “It is just one of those things that goes up with the population.

The facility will include meeting rooms and a large multipurpose space for a lunchroom, exercise space and large gatherings.

JJAEP serves students ages 10 to 17 who have been expelled from Collin County school districts under Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code for serious offenses such as felony drug possession, assault, weapons possession or for persistent misbehavior in a local district AEP. As required by law, JJAEP provides daily instruction and supervision for students placed there. The goals of the program are twofold: to provide an effective education program for youth, and to help students achieve behavioral and academic improvement.

“This is an odd kind of school,” said Keith Self, Collin County Judge. “This is not a school that we want to have a lot of kids in. These are kids that have basically been expelled from school so we’re mandated to teach them and we want to do a good job of teaching them while they are in the juvenile program. On the other hand it is not like a Frisco or McKinney or Plano school – we’re not looking for students.”

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