Phase 1 of new Spa City high school OK’d
The Hot Springs School Board approved phase 1 of the construction of a new high school Tuesday night during its regular monthly meeting at the Roy Rowe Educational Auditorium in the Jones Administration Building.
Construction is scheduled to begin in June.
Hot Springs School District Superintendent Stephanie Nehus said the district bid phase 1 of the project on April 4. Brian Hill, president of Hill & Cox Corp., was joined by project architect David French of French Architects at the meeting as he presented the construction costs for board approval.
Hill said the project came in under budget, for a bid guaranteed maximum price for construction of $37,864,050.
“I would like to qualify and clarify that Dr. Nehus and the administration spent a lot of hours planning and making sure that the cost, the value of this project, was good,” he said.
“A team of architects and us, and your administration, has done a great job in getting good value for the district. We did bid the project. We’ve received a number of bids from multiple contractors.”
Hill also noted that not only did they secure qualified people to do the job, but many of them lived in the Hot Springs community. Construction costs, he said, are currently “kind of crazy,” and he said he is proud they were able to establish an early budget and stay under it.
“We’ve heard from a lot of our associates — competitors, you might say — and they’ve been over budget,” he said. “I don’t know if you were aware of that, so we came in under budget. We got everything that you need in this project, so we’re happy about it.”
The new Hot Springs World Class High School will be constructed on the west end of campus where the practice field currently sits. The former 1968 high school will be demolished. The district will not seek a millage increase, Nehus said, and there will be no request from the taxpayers as the project is being done internally.
“We do need to stress this is phase 1, which will be the construction of the new high school, the renovation of the current science building, which we’re keeping, and take-down of the old high school,” she said.
“This includes construction management costs. It does not include architectural fees, engineering fees, environmental abatement, furnishings and technology, so we are planning for that, as well. I might also just remind, we are doing this with district moneys we have in our building fund and then we will be bringing forward a second-lien bond to pay for the additional [costs].”
Cox said they received bids in all the packages, and that the package summaries totaled $37 million.
The general contractor bid package for Hill & Cox came to $5,088,000. Among the many other packages, John F. Jenkins Contracting Inc. won the earthwork/ demolition package for $1,775,000; Car-Son Construction LLC will do the masonry for $577,989; Hill & Cox will do the structural and miscellaneous steel, metal wall, soffit and roof systems for $7,450,000; and G & M Drywall will perform the light gauge metal framing, drywall, ceiling systems and acoustic panels for $3,080,000.
“We received bids in all the packages and the package summaries total up to $37 million,” he said. “We did do a process of value engineering for the project to see if we could find some more money to get out of it. We were very successful in that as well and we were able to cut some money.”
He said following phase 1, the second phase will include a new gymnasium to be built next to the existing gymnasium. The existing one, he noted, which is in the high school on the west end of campus, will be cleaned up and made to look better. The third phase will include the construction of a new soccer field and tennis courts.