More Changes to High School Construction

The Centennial School Board met Tuesday evening and on the agenda, among other items, was a motion for the approval of more than $270,000 in change orders for the current construction projects at William Tennent High School as well as Willow Dale Elementary School.

Approximately $120,000 dollars of that total is for what is being called "unforseen changes" within the high school project.

At a recent Centennial School Board Operations Committee Meeting, Project Manager Ryan Brennan, of Reynolds Construction Management, detailed the change orders for the high school project as follows:

#121 – Hardware Revisions – electrical drawings did not show the proper hardware for the doors to be tied into the fire alarm system.

#183- Demolition and Reconstruction of a Wall in Area F – existing wall needed to be taken down and rebuilt in existing auditorium area for a ramp and several other locations to meet code with opening widths.

#184 – Added Peers at Area F – additional masonry required to encase existing steel at the auditorium area.

Total added costs: $120,376.72

Centennial School Board Operations Committee Chair Kati Driban said she looks at the change orders, and she understand they are unforeseen and they are necessary, but she worries about the amount approving the changes leaves in the project’s contingency budget.

“We are down to $47,000 left and we still have many months to go,” she said. “I don’t see how we are possibly going to finish this under budget.

Driban said she would support the change orders because they were necessary to the finishing of the project.

 Brennen said it was obvious that “there is no way this (project) is going to come in under budget with the contingency amount.”

 He said he did not anticipate hitting too many more “unforseens,” as they are currently building the last addition.

 “But we still have to take down a building, and we still don’t know what we may encounter underneath that building,” he added. “There could be design issues that pop up as we are building that last structure.”

Assistant Superintendent William Gretton said he is certain the district is going to have to take a look and re-evaluate the financials.

“You keep talking about unforeseen circumstances,” he said. “I would question whether some of these situations are unforeseen circumstances.”

 He said if it was truly the case then who should have been looking at these circumstances prior to the bids being put out.

 Gretton said in the one case, change order #183, you are talking about the construction of a wall.

 “It appears to me if it had been designed properly, we wouldn’t be spending this extra money,” he said.

As for change order #121, he said if the architect had followed the plans from one to the other and figured out a certain type of hardware was needed the design change would not be before the board.

Gretton said he understands there would have been certain costs embedded in the project if the provisions were made up front, such as having to pay extra for the proper hardware, but he said those costs would be no where near what the district is being charged for a change order.

“There are redesign costs, there is change order costs and there is mark-up,” he said. “You are probably paying double for it.”

Gretton said he was not sure just how many of these change orders have come before the board, but that his blood pressure rose when he looked just these few that were currently before them over.

“I think somebody ought to be looking at this,” he said. “ I think there are issues here that have not been followed through with.”

 Operations Committee Member Betty Huf said she could not understand why the district was so far out on costs when the bids for the high school renovation came in approximately 12 million dollars under what was initially budgeted for the project.

 “We have to have some money somewhere?” she said.

 Committee Member Thomas Hezel said when the board “saved 12 million dollars,” it used the money to do the renovations to the elementary schools.

 “So that money is gone,” he said.

 Board Member Michael Hartline was quick to counter Hezel’s statement.

 “That money is not gone yet,” he said. “Those projects have not been started, and if it means we need to make renovations or changes to those projects to be able to fulfill the needs for the original project, that is something we might have to look at.”

 Gretton said he plans to review the change orders and the financials of the building projects over the upcoming weeks.