From Approval to Opening: Inside Travis Unified School District’s Fast Tracked Campus Expansion

How Mass Timber Construction Delivered Permanent Classrooms at Record Speed

• By Aaron Rhodes
• 03/24/26

The Travis Unified School District (TUSD) in northern California includes several elementary and high schools serving over 5,400 students. In 2024, the TUSD Board approved the addition of sixth grade to the Golden West Middle School campus for the 2025–26 school year, setting in motion an accelerated effort to bring new facilities online in less than a year. The solution would need to be cost effective, high-quality, and successfully accommodate the enhanced programming envisioned for incoming students.

School construction on an active, occupied campus is a highly complex task with many considerations including site logistics, student and staff safety, programming accommodations and systems upgrades; however, the district timeline and budget for these efforts often leave no room for missteps or miscalculations. Accomplishing TUSD’s goal would require early partner and supplier collaboration, decisive leadership, and innovative building technologies.

Meeting Urgency with a Clear Vision

For TUSD’s Chief Business Officer Gabriel Moulaison, the challenge was clear from the start. “We were in a tough spot – we needed to go from board approval to welcoming sixth grade to the campus within a year – and the solutions could not be portables,” he said. His perspective echoes a broader challenge shared by districts across California: finding ways to expand capacity quickly without compromising quality. The lease-leaseback delivery method allowed the district to align early with trusted partners and streamline decision making. The project was awarded to XL Construction, a Milpitas firm with over 30 years of proven building experience in Northern California. In addition to Aedis Architects and Daedalus Structural Engineering, two San Jose companies, the project enlisted mass timber building solutions provider, TimberQuest™, to build durable, affordable, and energy efficient mass timber buildings.

At the heart of the 19,000 square-foot expansion project is the installation of four new one-story prefabricated mass timber classroom buildings. By utilizing TimberQuest’s Division of State Architect (DSA) prechecked design, the district experienced the efficiency that comes with over the counter permitting, a process that typically takes months, coming to fruition in just days. This streamlined approach of prefabricated mass timber allowed the team to compress construction timelines significantly while ensuring the buildings matched the district’s expectations for permanence, speed, and educational excellence.

Accelerated Success Using Mass Timber

A critical success factor was the district’s clarity around its nonnegotiables. School leaders committed to delivering modern, sustainable, permanent learning environments rather than temporary or interim structures often known as “portables”. This focus guided every step, from design selection to energy performance expectations to the construction methods that prioritized precision, sustainability, and long-term durability. The mass timber system is a 75+ year solution that delivers both aesthetic warmth, known as biophilic design, and environmental benefits, including a solar and net zero capable space from day one of operations. For Golden West Middle School, specifically, the 33 kW-DC system will produce more than 47,300 kWh of solar-generated power per year. The system also surpasses California-specific building codes and Title 24’s energy-efficiency regulations by up to 60%.

Similarly, TimberQuest’s patented prefabricated design not only minimizes on-site waste but also delivers a ready-to-erect kit of parts at record speed, enabling project completion up to 50% faster than traditional steel and concrete construction. In the case of Golden West Middle School, panel delivery, infrastructure work and full erection of all four mass timber buildings were completed in just three and a half months.

This accelerated timeline was made possible through strategic pull planning and proactive schedule optimization during the summer months. Although the 10-week panel production period began later than expected, the team used the delay to their advantage, completing a significant portion of site infrastructure work that had been planned for after the panel installation. They also streamlined foundation operations by pouring multiple building slabs simultaneously, reducing overall duration and positioning the project for rapid progress once panels arrived on site.

In addition to being visually pleasing, mass timber reduces embodied carbon by at least 45% compared to traditional building types and offers students a more biophilic experience, enabling productivity and a greater sense of connection to the natural world.

Comprehensive Transformation – Site and Utility Upgrades

Beyond the classrooms themselves, new underground utility systems, including sewer, stormwater and electrical, were built to serve the expanded campus and ensure long-term operational performance. The district also invested in a new parking lot and brand-new tennis and basketball courts, further aligning the campus with evolving student needs. The comprehensive nature of the improvements reflects TUSD’s commitment not only to accommodating more students, but to creating an environment that supports its mission of educational excellence with equity, innovation and transparency at the forefront.

At a ribbon cutting in August 2025, TUSD Superintendent Tiffany Benson emphasized the significance of what the team achieved with such tight constraints. “It’s not often, given today’s fiscal pressures, that schools can provide learning spaces that match the excellence of their instructional programs—but that’s what makes this accomplishment so significant,” she said. Her comments speak to the deeper purpose behind the project; ensuring that students entering a new phase of their academic careers feel welcomed, supported, and inspired by the spaces around them.

Ultimately, the Golden West Middle School project demonstrates what is possible when districts harness innovative building solutions, empowering teams to move with confidence and urgency. In just five and a half months of construction, XL Construction and TimberQuest were able to support Travis Unified School District in delivering a campus expansion that is permanent, modern, and intentionally designed for 21st-century learning. The project sets a new standard for rapid, high-quality school facility delivery in California.

“With a year to get through design and construction, TimberQuest’s DSA-PC approved option was exactly what we needed,” said Gabriel Moulaison, Chief Business Officer with the Travis Unified School District. “Working with the approved design and obtaining over-the-counter permitting saved us months, and we had four permanent buildings over the summer, that met our programming needs, ready for our sixth graders on the first day of school.”