Tab for Upper Darby buildings study nears $150,000

UPPER DARBY» The Upper Darby School Board approved another $71,276 for work on the districtwide facilities study that started 15 months ago.

At its June 6 meeting the board in a 5-4 vote approved payment to Bonnett Associates Inc. $63,470 to complete phase two of the facility study after an initial payment of $48,996 for phase one work in March 2016. Don Bonnett, owner of BAI, was tasked with the job as the school district’s architect of record.

An additional $7,800 was approved at the same meeting for more phase one work that was expanded to include reconfiguration proposals for both middle schools and to look at classroom subdivision in Beverly Hills Middle School that started this school year.

The resolution for phase one and two services was included in the meeting’s facilities report which was adopted as a whole by board President Ken Rucci, Vice President Vincent Gordon, Judy Gentile, Manjit Singh and Kate Smith.

School directors Maureen Carey and Rachel Mitchell voted no to the phase two expenses with Heather Boyd voting no to the report’s six professional services resolutions for Bonnett. Lee Jordan abstained on a non-related issue found in the report.

The majority did not comment before casting the vote, but Mitchell advised the board to be cautious about another expense for the study when phase one hasn’t been completed. Boyd has long been asking for updates by Bonnett on the facilities study.

Bonnett was tasked with creating a study of the district’s 14 buildings as part of a now-failed application to the state education department’s PlanCon program with the prospect of building a new elementary school in the district. When the district submitted their PlanCon parts A and B materials in June 2015 it did not submit the required facilities study with that application, rendering it void. The project was estimated to cost $35 million with potential reimbursement of up to $5 million from PlanCon with an approved initial application.

Since last March, Bonnett has yet to provide public updates on the study that will illustrate the state of building capacities in regard to a growing student population as they pertain to mandates established by the district’s educational specifications. Pertaining to the study, Bonnett has been present at district committee meetings to get feedback on what specifications should be worked into the study and, at one point, proposed building an extension to Primos Elementary School to accommodate regular education students and the academic support program, an option that died in committee.

Bonnett said on June 8 that the study shouldn’t have taken this long to complete, but that his firm was presented with various sets of demographic data that were submitted by a former district administrator.

“(It was) just continually revising data and resubmitted to administration, committee and the firm, and then there was a new scenario,” Bonnett said. “We never got to the point before we are able to develop a plan.

“This is a very intensive, deep study of the demos in terms of the capacity in each school,” Bonnett added. “(The district has) meticulously defined the educational program for every level of education. That is called defining the educational specifications and they define a need for additional spaces or more spaces than exist today, or redefining the space in a particular building.”

In addition to the approximately $120,000 approved by the board for Bonnett to complete the study, a $26,000 contract was awarded last month to an education consulting firm for demographer services that will provide valid data for use in the of the study.

To date, approved expenses total $146,272 for the unfinished study which district officials indicate will be completed in August or September. Bonnett confirmed this week the study should be finished this summer.

In addition to the accruing $120,000 bill for his facilities study work, the board also approved on June 6 another $24,900 for Bonnett’s services for other facility-related projects. The firm’s services are sought through construction documents and the bidding phase of three district projects: gym and HVAC renovations at Beverly Hills Middle School for $15,463; fire alarm upgrades the high school and Beverly Hills for $1,330; and replacement of the high school’s courtyard plaza for $8,126. completion