MARYSVILLE Inflation is hitting the Marysville School Districts construction projects hard, with costs for a new high school pitched to the voters on a 2006 ballot at $79 million coming in as much as $30 million more.
School board directors unanimously approved a plan to get construction drawings done by the end of the year to keep the new Marysville Getchell High School on track for an August 2010 opening at their Aug. 6 meeting, but were shocked at a dramatic rise in costs.
If the 1,600-student high school is built on that timeline, engineers estimate it will cost $96 million. If it takes an additional year the price jumps to $108 million.
The numbers have climbed considerably, capital projects director John Bingham told the board.
Thats a pretty sizable chunk, board president Michael Kundu responded. Its going to be hard to go back to the community and say its going to cost $16 million more.
Other board members were shaking their heads, mindful of a $300 million facilities backlog and informal plans to go back to the voters in 2010 to ask for more money, in property taxes, to build or rebuild two elementary schools.
When this comes up it doesnt look good for us, director Don Hatch said. Im really struggling with this. Its going to be a tougher go.
Bingham said he is exploring several funding sources to make up for the increase, including using $16.8 million in state matching funds plus a couple of other smaller sources to achieve $17.4 for a first tier of additional funding. Another $10.5 million might be garnered by capturing interest on the bond revenues and using $5.54 million in state matching money to be derived from Washington state for building Grove Elementary School. While other funds might be found, the $96 million figure was a firm number and wouldnt be coming down.
However, Bingham said designers were working to find other cost savings and the steel portion of the structure has gone down by a million dollars. The deeper they get into the design and engineering, the more information planners will have, he added.
There are some things in there that might change, Bingham said.
Director Cindy Erickson said that when the district volunteers campaigned for a $118 million bond issue, with a $79 million high school as the centerpiece, no one could have predicted the rampant inflation in construction materials and labor that she said was as high as 20 percent.
Nobody could have predicted that, Erickson said, noting that in just one year her house appreciated $50,000. We have to educate the public.
Superintendent Larry Nyland said the district had some foresight and wasnt relying on state dollars for un-housed students i.e., those in portables and not permanent structures. The state remits an extra amount of construction funding for each of those students and the district was banking those for future use.
Were doing well compared with others, Nyland said. We have done everything possible to save money.
He admitted that at a cursory glance most voters will be shocked by the larger figure.
Bingham also had bad news for the timeline for the new shared options program campus being built next to Quil Ceda Elementary School. It will house three schools but not until almost Thanksgiving for the first and January 2008 for the last.
Problems with moving telephone poles and routing natural gas lines to the site on 27th Avenue NE have caused delays and the district didnt apply to Snohomish County for occupancy permits until July 9. Those permits generally have an eight-week turnaround time, according to Bingham, and relocating utilities generally involves a one-year lead time.
The new schedule foresees the Marysville Arts & Technology High School moving into classes on Nov. 17, with the Tulalip Heritage High School 10 days later. The Tenth Street Program would not be able to move in until
Jan. 1 and thats up from the mid-January timeline proposed by contractor Williams-Scotsman, who is building the modular structures.
So were going to be pushing them on that, Bingham said.
A shared gymnasium and cafeteria will be built on site by another contactor and will come on line a day early, on Dec. 14.
Erickson asked if the district could have asked about relocating the utilities much earlier and if there were other miscues. Bingham said Williams-Scotsman might have underestimated the work involved on the modular components and the district couldnt know how much natural gas would need to be piped to the site until planners knew how much energy the buildings would use.
We didnt have all that information, Bingham told the board.
Nyland reminded the board that this type of project was a unique way of doing things and was still much cheaper and faster than a conventionally built structure like Grove Elementary. Many other school districts are interested in the idea, he added.
We were the guinea pigs, Kundu said.
In the interim some A&T students will be housed at Totem Middle School; formerly known as Marysville Junior High School, when it hosted about 425 ninth-graders. Those students are now at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, freeing up room on the State Avenue campus, and since A&T students already take woodshop classes they will be put in vacant rooms right next to the Totem shop classes.
Heritages headcount will increase from the current 64 students to 92 this fall, but assistant superintendent Gail Miller said their campus is rated to hold 180 students, so space wont be a problem.
They are in much better shape than A&T, Nyland said.
That school is going to grow from about 180 students to 294 this fall. The Tenth Street Program has its own campus in downtown Marysville.