Apr 5, 2016 3 min read

CARMICHAELS – Carmichaels Area School Board awarded contracts Tuesday for the elementary school renovation project, agreeing to borrow additional money to avoid scaling the project down.

The board awarded contracts totaling $4,645,320, about 18 percent higher than original estimates. The board hoped to keep the project at about $3.9 million.

The board opened bids on the project Thursday and when bids came in higher than expected, decided to meet again at the special meeting Tuesday to consider whether to reduce the project scope.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board considered two options.

One included only base bids, a scaled-down project that did not include features such as new unit ventilators, new entrance doors and data infrastructure, among other things. That bid totaled about $3.9 million.

The second option was a plan that would include those same items as well as a different type of roofing system that had a longer warranty but cost about $124,000 more. That option totaled about $4.7 million.

The board discussed whether the district should eliminate new unit ventilators and just recondition existing ones. It also questioned the benefits of the higher-priced roofing system.

The board decided to install new unit ventilators and go with the conventional roofing system.

Superintendent John Menhart said following the meeting the board started with a “big wish list” and had to go through the list of work to see what was “practical.”

Individual student lockers were among the items removed from the project, he said.

“We tried to pick the items that provided the best value,” Menhart said.

In addition to the replacement of the roof and exterior doors, the project will include mechanical and electrical upgrades, installation of LED lights and upgrades to restrooms to make then ADA compliant.

A new, secure main entrance also will be constructed that will require visitors to be “buzzed in” through a locked door.

The board also approved a motion to hire Janney Montgomery Scott LLC as underwriter for a $1 million bond issue to help pay for the project. To renovate the middle-junior high school and the elementary, the district already issued $25 million in bonds.

Work on the project is expected to begin the first week of May on the third floor of the elementary school.

The fourth and fifth-grade students who occupy that floor will have classes in the modular classrooms that were used during the middle-senior high projects.

No workers will be in the school, or work conducted, during school hours, Menhart said.

An open house meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday for the fifth and sixth-grade students and parents in the high school auditorium to discuss the project.

The renovation project will continue during the summer months and is expected to be completed mid-August.