Catherine Twitero

The Brookings school board and administration were faced with an ultimatum: Cut 6,000 square feet from the intermediate school design or be close to $1 million over budget.

Based on projections of what construction bids might be, Banner Associates, Inc., architect Tim Fonder brought forward the suggestion to cut the size of the new intermediate school.

The discussion took place at Monday’s scheduled board meeting.

"One of the things that is an ongoing battle is our budget,” Fonder said. “We are currently 6,000 square feet over budget, and we are working with the irregular shape trying to reduce that where we can or economize where we can."

A cost estimate of $100 per square foot, calculated for site work and construction of the new intermediate school, was initially proposed by Banner. Therefore, the firm said it anticipated a design with 90,000 square feet to stay within budget.

The current design encompasses 96,266 square feet. Fonder said that the projected price of $100 per square foot hasn’t changed; the square footage of the design changed.

Site work and construction fees are covered by Banner’s $100 price projection. but not the firm’s consulting fees totaling $650,000 and contingencies at $250,000.

"What I think we’re frustrated with is that we have a very well known budget of $10 million, whether you include your fees in the price per square fees or not," said Catherine Twitero, school board president. "We’re frustrated with cutting back 6,000 square feet now when we spent a lot of community time and teacher’s time (creating the design)."

"We felt we would be between 90,000 and 100,000 square feet. ... That’s what we went into this discussion with, not ever hearing there were fees above and beyond that," said board member Pam Merchant.

An option suggested by Marysz Rames was to get a bid alternate so that bids would be asked for both the current 96,266-square foot design as well as a design with the 6,000 square feet cut.

As a whole, the board seemed hesitant to go that route, thinking bids could come in higher if a bid alternate was requested.

Board member Amy Dunkle added to the discussion voicing concern over cutting square feet needed as the district expands. Dunkle said she doesn’t want to look back in 10 years facing an add-on when costs had risen and wish it had been incorporated at the initial construction.

"I just think we have to be really careful as we bring it into the $10 million range what exactly is cut or where it is scaled back (so) that it is still a growable building for the future," said Dunkle.

Superintendent Roger DeGroot, who also expressed frustration from facing significant cuts in square footage at this point, said he would immediately begin working with Principal Dave Fiedler to form groups discussing where cuts could be made.

A push will also begin in earnest to get documents together enabling a bid request in January 2008. By moving up the bidding process by a few months, the district could receive lower bids because of the construction timing.

A "green design" has been a factor in the design of the new intermediate school, and Fonder reported several environmentally friendly items that have been incorporated into the building. For these items, going "green" has no additional cost because the steps are already required by city building codes and ordinances.

Matching items on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System are soil and erosion control, bus system and bike path (routes for alternate transportation), joint use of facilities, area to collect and store recyclables, smoke-free environment, use of recycled building materials, and an efficient building envelope.

Additional green building ideas that count toward LEED certification that the board had been considering included daylighting and geothermal heating. Fonder advised that both would require a larger up-front cost and more time to pay for a higher initial cost.

Fonder said the daylighting requirement for LEED certification means a lot of glass to get the credit, and the higher initial cost of installing geothermal heat pumps would not be repaid in annual cost savings even after 30 years.

Plans call for construction of the new intermediate school to be complete for the 2009-2010 school year. At that time grade-alike configuration will be implemented with Hillcrest and Medary elementary schools becoming K-3 primary centers. Central Elementary is slated to become a nonprofit children’s learning center.



Contact Ashley Bolstad at abolstad@brookingsregister.com.