BASCOM - Hope-well-Loudon Board of Education conducted a special meeting Wednesday night to speak about the district's new school facility.
It was noted that higher-than-anticipated construction bids caught some off guard.
Doug Rich, representative for the school architectural firm Fanning Howey, said he wanted to "take the board down memory lane" with Superintendent Geoff Palmer addressing the question of whether the quality of work would suffer with the current bids.
Rich discussed several construction points on the building that the district residents were vocal about wanting, helped result in the elevated bids. These points included:
A brick facade around the school.
Metal roofs with a half inch slope versus a typical quarter inch slope.
Extended canopies for protecting students when gathering for buses and recess.
Masonry arches.
Flooring upgrades throughout the building.
Palmer said as bids "were a little" high, the task of budget reconciliation would begin.
Touchstone CPM representatives Steve Schroeder and Annette Komminsk attended the meeting to discuss their negotiations with Ohio School Facility Commission and finding money in the plan to counter financial gaps. Komminsk said they approached OSFC with a plan which was approved, while others were told to go back to the drawing board and rebid their projects.
Komminsk discussed using some contingency money that was built into the project, but still leaving about $800,000 for unseen issues.
School treasurer Veronica Reinhart and Komminsk said they believed much of the remaining contingency money could be used, but the unused balance would be split between the amount provided by OSFC and the school district.
Palmer insisted technology was not touched to "get there," and Komminsk and Palmer said the board did not want to go back to the district or state for additional funding.
Komminsk said she was confident the district's plan would ensure a building in line with what the design committee and public has asked for, and their search for money within the existing plan, would allow the district to successfully meet its construction and financial goals.
A discussion of local funding, project alternates, and how it ties in with the five-year forecast and budget occurred.
The board is to meet next in regular session at 6 p.m. Oct. 19 in the distance learning lab with a community forum scheduled in the auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
