Blog
Thoughts from the field
The key players at VPCS have a lot to say about the state of the industry, because we’ve been in the thick of it for years. Read current and archived posts for insights and perspectives. Subscribe to our blog.
Meet Mohammed Abu-Mhanna: A Motorcycle Enthusiast with a Designer’s Eye
Mohammed Abu-Mhanna is so much more than a VPCS senior project manager. This multi-talented professional rounds things out with a valuable architectural perspective, international construction and design experience, and an affinity for a certain mode of two-wheeled...
It’s Time for CASH
In our industry, this is the season of CASH – the Coalition for Adequate School Housing – and its annual conference, an important event for anyone connected to the school facilities sector in California. We’re eagerly gearing up for another powerful few days of...
Here We Come, 2024
January always delivers an opportunity for fresh starts. At VPCS, we’re kicking off 2024 from our beautiful new headquarters, where we’re gearing up for another year of service to a growing list of California’s K-12 communities. Here are just a few things we’re...
Group Gift
The holiday season is here, bringing with it the simple joys of togetherness, reflection and gratitude. At VPCS, we believe one of the greatest gifts is the opportunity to work with and for a group of talented, dedicated people – and we couldn’t imagine better...
Thank You Notes
‘Tis the season for gratitude and we’ve got loads of it. Here, some of us share a few thoughts about what we’re thankful for and all that we have to look forward to. Everyone here at VPCS wishes our colleagues, family and friends a happy and healthy Thanksgiving....
Client Spotlight: Pleasanton Unified
The Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) serves more than 14,000 K-12 students across 16 campuses. And, since 2019, VPCS has proudly served PUSD. The relationship we’ve built over the years with this client exemplifies the close connection we typically make with...
Meet Felicia Silveira: Woodworker, Paddleboarder and VPCS-er
Assistant Project Manager Felicia Silveira is one of the newest members of our company roster and is already proving herself to be an enormously valuable addition to Team Van Pelt. Beyond her professional skills, Felicia possesses a natural curiosity to learn – both...
Ready for Back-to-School
Summertime is anything but lazy in the world of K-12 construction management. The weeks spanning the end of one school year and the start of the next tend to be the busiest for us. It’s when we kick things into high gear and tackle projects of every size without...
Six Reasons Why VPCS Supports AB 247
In 2024, Californians will vote on Assembly Bill (AB) 247, a statewide general obligation bond act that would provide $14 billion for construction and modernization of education facilities. Officially referred to as the Transitional Kindergarten Through Community...
Sensei, Bodyguard and Jonas Salk’s Right-hand Man: Getting to Know Kevin Little
When Senior Program Manager Kevin Little joined VPCS in 2020, he brought years of experience building, managing, operating and maintaining world-class facilities, including a stint with the Los Angeles public school system – the second largest district in the country....
The Party’s Just Beginning
We’re sweeping up the last of the literal and proverbial confetti following our extended 25th anniversary celebrations. (Technically, we opened our doors 27 years ago in 1996, but Covid interruptions got these festivities rolling a bit later than they otherwise would...
A Woman’s Place
At VPCS, we pride ourselves on the diversity of perspectives that we bring to everything we do. That includes a staff with a gender mix that more closely matches the actual population and is dramatically more balanced than the industry average. (Women account for 45%...
Seven Reasons Small Districts Turn to VPCS
At VPCS, we have more than 25 years of experience supporting the K-12 sector, and we’re proud of the ever-growing roster of school districts around the state that have trusted us to oversee their facilities work. While our larger district clients and their more...
The Talents, Tastes and Travels of Jennifer Kerr
Project Manager Jennifer Kerr, who joined the VPCS team in 2017, brings a lot to the table, whether that table is in a conference room, a kitchen, an art studio or a foreign country. Read on to learn more about just a few of Jennifer’s many skills and experiences. Q:...
Looking Forward to the CASH Conference
It’s a new year, and that means the start of our industry’s conference season. We’ll kick things off in a few weeks at the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH) 44th Annual Conference on School Facilities, to be held February 22-24 at the SAFE Credit Union...
‘Tis the Season
As we wrap up another year, the VPCS family extends our warmest wishes to clients, colleagues, associates and friends. We are so grateful to all the talented, dedicated people in our professional community who inspire us every day to go above and beyond. Here’s to a...
The Votes Are In. Now What?
The 2022 election cycle has come to a close. In many California communities, voters were asked to support local K-12 school bonds. For districts whose bond measures passed, this is roll-up-the-sleeves time. As experienced program managers (PMs), VPCS has seen many...
Document Prep for the New Year: Four Tips for School Districts
The end of the calendar year is when school districts begin to think about the tasks – particularly related to paperwork and documentation – that need to be done to ensure that everything is in order prior to kicking off a new year. With 2023 right around the corner,...
Why Local Bond Initiatives Are Good for California
November is just around the corner, which means it’s almost time for Californians to go to the polls. Election season is especially important to those of us in school construction because it’s when voters cast their ballots for school bond measures for K-12 and...
How We Spent Our Summer Break
Late August is always an exciting time on K-12 campuses as teachers, staff, students and families prepare for the start of a new school year. But for those of us in school construction, it’s the end of a very busy season. We work hard all year round, but summertime is...
Introducing Jennifer Gibb, VPCS’s New Director of Business Development
Big news from the VPCS home office: We’re excited to announce that Jennifer Gibb has joined our ranks as our inaugural director of business development. We talked with Jennifer and VPCS Vice President Kelli Van Pelt Jurgenson about this exciting new addition to the...
Project Spotlight: The CORE Building at CSUEB
We always enjoy delivering spectacular projects to our clients, and the new CORE Building on the Hayward campus of California State University East Bay (CSUEB) is certainly no exception. Work is nearly complete on this state-of-the-art, $85 million, 100,000 square...
Putting CASH Academy Training to Work
VPCS has a long and rich relationship with the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH), which advocates to ensure that California’s public school facilities are safe and healthy places where students can learn and thrive. For the past few years, we’ve...
From MTV to VPCS: Catching Up with Charles Harbour
Since joining us in 2018, Charles Harbour has been applying his project management skills to multiple sites around the Berkeley Unified School District. While he’s a great construction management professional, he’s also a great addition to our team because of all the...