Officials, Consultants Urge School Bd.

To Act On NHS Expansion Options

By John Voket

It was Thanksgiving week, and a growing contingent of public officials and contractors working for the town under the direction of the Board of Education are urging their members to talk turkey about the future Newtown High School expansion proposal when the board meets December 2.

As recently as a November 25 Public Building and Site Commission (PBSC) meeting, officials and consultants involved in the proposed expansion of Newtown High School said the school board needs to get the project back on track, and fast.

During that meeting, Arthur Lindley of the Morganti Group, the project’s management firm, told school district business manager Ronald Bienkowski and school board member David Nanavaty that if the board failed to authorize the project, in some form, for rebidding in time to get shovels in the ground next May, the schedule to complete the project would jump from 20 to 23 months.

And if the process leading to construction is delayed much further, Mr Lindley said, “The schedule can go out the window.”

One day earlier at a Board of Finance meeting, that panel learned that rebidding the project would not only take four to six months, but the costs involved would deplete the project budget by as much a another quarter-million dollars.

Both boards were told by district officials that many aspects of the expansion proposal that were promoted early on, and already approved by voters as part of a $38.8 million referendum last April, are now under consideration as project alternates.

Besides several original project alternates like painted block and a lightning protection system, Mr Bienkowski told both boards that tennis courts, basement storage under the gymnasium, a cafeteria patio plaza, wood ceilings, and reconfiguring the main entryway to the facility are now under consideration as alternates.

“The goal is to get a budget...so we could start this project,” Mr Bienkowski said. “Some alternates may be on hold, but the idea is we want to get the project going for an amount of money that is available, the $38.8 million basically.”

The business manager said the track and synthetic field alternates are still being considered as part of the project because they impact physical education programs, as well as many community activities.

Mr Lindley said part of the plan to affect some savings is to expand bid packages from 12 to 30. But, Mr Lindley said, he is not seeing commodity and materials prices coming down fast or far enough to bring in the project as originally approved under the $38.8 million available.

He said that if all alternates including those newly identified are included, the project is still estimated to come in more than $6 million over budget, but with all alternates removed and additional value engineering applied, Mr Lindley is still estimating the project rebidding could come in almost $3 million over the $38.8 million available.

Robert Mitchell, PBSC chairman, said his observed school board members up to now were not “on a common path,” in regard to the project’s future.

“It sounds like the Board of Ed has a lot to talk about at the next meeting,” Mr Mitchell said.

During the finance board’s November 24 meeting, Chairman John Kortze appeared particularly concerned after learning that “value management” applied after voters rejected a $6 million request to cover cost overruns, which his board was previously told was exhausted, has since been utilized to trim nearly a half-million more dollars in costs from the project without impacting educational specifications.

And when the board was told the driveway reconfiguration was being broken out for consideration as an alternate that would be bid as a separate third phase of the project, Mr Kortze accused school board Chair Elaine McClure of attempting to mislead taxpayers.

The finance chair said by artificially lowering the cost of the project by removing a $1.5 million component that was previously included within the $38.8 million overall cost estimate, only to resurrect it later as an additional phase requiring new funding, amounted to “duping the public.”

Ms McClure responded saying the proposal to phase out the driveway reconfiguration was just another option on the table for discussion.

“Let’s call a spade a spade here,” Mr Kortze said. “If you are coming into my car dealership and I’m saying, ‘Here’s the Honda but no tires, the tires are another $400,’ you’re going to have to come back with the $400 for the tires, because it’s a necessity.”

Mr Kortze said he doubted anything short of a major redesign of the project would achieve the goal of completing an expansion that accommodates both student population increases and educational specifications under the $38.8 million already approved.

“It sounds like we’re spinning our wheels here,” Mr Kortze said, asking, “Is it the Board of Ed’s objective to go through this exercise, or to try an legitimately get back to [$38.8 million], and provide a project that the town pulled the lever for the first time?”

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson acknowledged that the high school project that was approved for $38.8 million “can’t be built.”

“The [school] board is struggling with this,” Dr Robinson said. “They are trying to get this down to $38.8 million, but it’s not happening.”

Finance board member Joseph Kearney suggested the exact same project be rebid to achieve a barometer of comparison between costs at the height of the nation’s financial crisis and what the market is offering currently, along with rebidding a scaled-back proposal with all the aforementioned alternates broken out.

Mr Kearney also strongly supported making as many separate bid opportunities available as possible to maximize the potential for cost savings on the labor front.