With just two months remaining before Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 awards a contract for constructing an addition at Brook Park School and renovating S.E. Gross Middle School, the district’s general contractor last week estimated that the work will cost roughly $9.32 million.
That figure is actually slightly under the architect’s target cost of $9.5 million, although the amount does not include work to replace all of the windows at both schools. It does include most of the school board’s top priorities, including new classrooms, a multipurpose/lunch room, two technology classrooms, an expanded library and new school offices at Brook Park School. The cost also includes three new science labs, two computer rooms, an expanded library, upgraded electrical service in the auditorium and an entirely new school office suite at S.E. Gross Middle School.
In addition, life safety repairs will be made at both schools, and the bathrooms at both schools will receive mid-level renovation, including the replacement of fixtures.
The Brook Park expansion and S.E. Gross renovation are being funded in large part by a $7.5 million bond issue. Money will also be coming from the school’s working cash fund and its operations and maintenance fund. The work will not deplete those funds completely, said Superintendent Thomas Hurlburt. Rather, the district will continue to fund building maintenance and other improvements in future years.
“We’ll get significant work done, but we want to maintain our fund balances, so we can address building needs as they arise,” Hurlburt said. “We don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we have to get creative with finances at high interest rates.”
Final cost estimates will be presented to the board this week, and school officials plan to put the project out to bid by July 20, according to a schedule provided by Doug Lim of Gilbane Construction, which is the general contractor for the district.
Bids will be opened on Aug. 15, with a construction contract expected to be awarded the week of Aug. 27. A groundbreaking ceremony has yet to be planned.
The addition at Brook Park School will be started this fall and completed before the 2008-09 school year. Renovation to S.E. Gross School will begin during the summer of 2008. That work is also expected to be completed in time for the 2008-09 school year.
While the preliminary cost estimate for the work is under the $9.5 million budget, the district will be unable to include window replacement at both schools in the two-year construction cycle. Instead, district officials will phase in window replacement over a period of two or three years.
Initial estimates for window replacement were pegged at around $1.56 million. Estimates from Gilbane Construction last week showed that the district could expect to pay nearly $2.3 million. Window replacement at S.E. Gross School alone was projected at nearly $1.4 million.
“In the next two months, we’ll roll out a plan to do the windows over a period of years,” Hurlburt said. “In the meantime, we’ll repair the existing windows to being them up to a level that’s appropriate.”