Purpose
During the June 2026 Board of Trustees meeting, community members raised questions about the Wellness Center project at West Valley College, particularly the decision to build it at the site of the existing track and field. Some have asked whether voters approved this project, whether the location change was made properly, and why they did not hear about it sooner. These are fair questions, and they deserve a complete answer.
This page walks through the full history of the project, the decisions made along the way, and the documentation behind each one.
History of the Wellness Center
A wellness center at West Valley College is not a new idea. The concept was discussed informally on campus going back to the late 1990s, but it was never prioritized or funded through either of the District’s two earlier bonds at West Valley.
Measure H, approved in 2004, funded physical education work at West Valley limited to rebuilding the Aquatic Center, which was completed in 2008. Under Measure C, approved in 2012, the wellness center that was funded and constructed was at Mission College. At West Valley, Measure C funded a renovation of the existing physical education building, which was never carried out, along with a broader study of the athletics and physical education complex.
That study, together with the West Valley College 2020 Facilities Master Plan developed in 2014 and the physical education and athletics facilities master plan prepared by Kwan Henmi in 2018, defined the facility needs and planning that Measure W would go on to fund.
Measure W and Voter Approval
In 2018, the District placed Measure W before voters. Like all California school and college bonds under Proposition 39, the measure consisted of a ballot question, which state law caps at 75 words, and the full text of the measure, which includes the complete bond project list.
By the Board’s resolution ordering the election, adopted August 7, 2018, both the ballot question and the full text of the measure were directed to be printed in the voter ballot pamphlet mailed to voters. The ballot question is necessarily general; the project list is the legally operative list that defines what bond dollars may fund.
The full text of Measure W expressly authorized the District to “build or upgrade facilities, including… at West Valley College, learning resource center, wellness center, physical education building, STEM classrooms, outdoor physical education facilities and a black box theatre.”
The same full text, in its list of authorized project types, also expressly included "track replacement" as an authorized bond project. The language specifically approved by the voters therefore named both the Wellness Center and track replacement as projects that Measure W would fund.
The full text identified the facilities to be built without fixing a location for any of them, since site selection is a design-phase decision, standard for bond-funded facilities at public institutions of this scale. In sum, voters specifically approved both a wellness center and a replacement track.
Following the passage of Measure W in November 2018, implementation began promptly. In January 2019, the Board of Trustees approved the Measure W project priority list in open session, allocating $74,379,400 to the Wellness Center and $17,636,300 to the physical education building renovation.
That action, like every bond project prioritization, was taken publicly and is reflected in public board records. Any change to a project’s name or budget requires approval by the Board of Trustees through a formal rebase process.
Since 2019, the Wellness Center project and its current budget have appeared on public board agendas at least quarterly, and bond rebases have included bond documents shared at public board meetings.
Proposition 39 also requires independent financial and performance audits of bond spending every year. These audits are reviewed by a Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee made up of community members. The District’s Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee has reviewed Measure W spending annually; its meetings and reports are public, and the District has received clean audits every year.
The Original Design and Site Findings
Building on the Kwan Henmi master plan, the District initially identified the existing physical education complex as the site for the new Wellness Center, with a design that placed the building adjacent to and wrapped around the existing large and small gymnasiums.
Bids were solicited on that design through a competitive request for proposals issued in May 2024. In September 2024, the Board awarded a progressive design-build contract to Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
As design advanced through 2025, however, site assessment and code analysis identified three serious cost drivers at that location.
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Hazardous materials and soil conditions: The site carried significant hazardous materials risk, including lead, asbestos, and soil conditions typical of a complex built in the early 1970s.
The District knows this risk firsthand. The renovation of the West Valley College library suffered dramatic cost overruns when unmarked hazardous materials were discovered after walls and ceilings were opened, requiring abatement that cost more than $3.3 million.
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Seismic, fire, and life-safety upgrades: Building the new facility that close to the existing gymnasiums would trigger, under current building code, a full seismic retrofit and fire and life-safety upgrades that were never included in the project scope.
This requirement surfaced at the intake meeting with the Division of the State Architect and added more than $15 million to the project cost.
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Temporary swing space: The original site would have displaced coaches’ offices, kinesiology faculty, locker rooms, classrooms, and adaptive physical education during construction.
Accommodating these displaced programs would have required roughly $5 million in temporary swing space that would serve no long-term purpose for students or taxpayers.
Together, these findings put the project approximately $23.3 million over budget. The District faced a choice: spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in a way that would produce no new educational value, or find a more feasible and cost-effective site.
The Decision to Relocate
The District decided to pause the design and evaluate alternatives. The most cost-effective option was to relocate the building to the track and field area and consolidate the two voter-funded projects—the new Wellness Center and the physical education building renovation—into a single new building.
This kept roughly $23.3 million in local bond dollars in the building itself rather than spending those funds on abatement, retrofits of adjacent structures, and temporary trailers. It also delivered both programs while achieving cost savings through the scale of a single combined project amid escalating construction costs.
On September 9, 2025, at a regular public meeting, the Board of Trustees considered this change as an open-session action item. The published agenda item stated the scope explicitly: a complete design revision relocating the building to the track and field area.
District administration explained the redesign in detail during the meeting, and the Board discussed community use of the space, neighbor relations, and plans to incorporate a replacement auxiliary track into the new design. The Board approved the redesign unanimously.
As with every facility in the District’s bond program, the decisions concerning where and how to build the Wellness Center have been reviewed by the District’s bond counsel.
Since that decision, the project has moved steadily forward. The site package was submitted to the Division of the State Architect in December 2025 and approved in June 2026. The building package was submitted in June 2026.
Across a series of public board meetings in 2025 and 2026, the Board of Trustees formally approved and committed approximately $47.8 million toward the project, procuring trades and materials to maintain the schedule and protect taxpayers from escalating construction costs.
These are binding contractual commitments that have already been allocated to a variety of trade partners. Pursuant to the District’s project labor agreement, this work is performed by local union labor, keeping the voter-approved bond dollars in the community.
Community Track Access
The District recognizes that community members informally use the existing track. Because relocating the Wellness Center to the track site means the existing track will be removed, the District has committed to building a new, state-of-the-art auxiliary track adjacent to the Wellness Center at an estimated cost of $5 million.
As stated above, this project is within what voters approved. The full text of Measure W expressly authorized track replacement as a use of bond funds.
The new track is being designed for the community, and the District has invited track users, including the West Valley Joggers and Striders, to help shape it, from surface material and lighting to hours of access.
The District’s commitment to building the track, despite West Valley College not having a track and field team of its own, reflects how seriously it takes community use. The invitation to help design it remains open.
Construction for the Wellness Center is scheduled to begin in August 2026, at which point the existing track will close. The new Wellness Center and the new track are targeted to open in spring 2029. The new Wellness Center is expected to open first, followed by the new track.
Communication with the Community
Every step of this process followed the same public, legally governed procedures as every other project in the District’s bond program. Each decision was made in open session, properly agendized, and documented in the public record in a manner consistent with the law.
The Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee receives quarterly updates and financial expenditure reports on every bond project, including the Wellness Center, and the District’s bond counsel has reviewed the program’s legal compliance throughout.
The District has also partnered with community stakeholders throughout the process, including Successful Aging Solutions & Community Consulting, the Saratoga nonprofit that runs the city’s senior center, adult day program, and senior transportation service.
Successful Aging Solutions & Community Consulting has been involved at each step for the last three years, from helping develop the facility’s programming for Saratoga seniors to participating in the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee membership.
Why the Wellness Center
West Valley College exists to serve its roughly 15,000 students, and no use of this space would serve a broader population than the Wellness Center will.
The existing physical education building dates back to 1974 and cannot support a modern wellness and kinesiology program. The new Wellness Center will house instruction, athletics, and campus-wide fitness and wellness programming under one roof.
The facility will support all kinesiology activity courses, including strength and conditioning, yoga, nutrition, rehabilitation, and more, matching the program voters approved in 2018.
The community will also benefit, and not only through the new track. The Wellness Center itself is designed for community use.
That has been part of the project from the beginning. The 2018 project description promised a facility serving the entire campus community and providing a conduit to the external community, including a hub for evening and weekend event programming.
When this phase of construction is complete, the western edge of campus will form a continuous wellness corridor consisting of tennis and pickleball courts, the Wellness Center, the new track, and beach volleyball. These amenities will be publicly accessible in a way the current, aging complex never was.
Campus facilities must evolve with the needs of the students they serve. This project does that while improving the community access that neighbors value.
In Summary
The Wellness Center now under construction delivers exactly what Measure W promised: a modern wellness facility to serve students and the community, funded by a bond voters approved in 2018.
Its location changed only after detailed site assessment uncovered significant added costs at the original site. The Board weighed and approved that decision unanimously, in public and on the record. The change saved roughly $23.3 million and protected instruction during construction.
The District stands behind both the project and the process, and the full documentation is included as exhibits on this page for anyone who wants to learn more.
What comes next is worth looking forward to: a facility that will serve students and neighbors for generations, and a new track designed and built in partnership with the community—one the District intends to be even better than the track it replaces.
Exhibits
- Measure W ballot question and full text of the measure, as printed in the Santa Clara County Voter Information Guide for the November 6, 2018, election.
- Board of Trustees item (1), and resolution (2), ordering the Measure W election, with the bond project list (3), approved August 7, 2018.
- Board of Trustees item (1) approving the Measure W Project Priority List (2), approved January 22, 2019.
- Measure C supporting documents: (1) ballot materials, (2) Board of Trustees item approving the Project Priority List, approved January 22, 2019, and (3) full project list attachment.
- Board of Trustees item authorizing the redesign at the track and field site, approved September 9, 2025.
- Current design documents: (1) Wellness Center site plan, (2) Wellness Center rendering, and (3) site plan showing the location of the new community track.
- Division of the State Architect approval of the Increment 1 site package, June 2026.
- West Valley-Mission Community College District Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee Annual Report, 2025.
- Measure W General Obligation Bonds documents prepared by CWDL: (1) Financial Statement Audit for fiscal year 2024–2025 and (2) Performance Audit for fiscal year 2024–2025.