STATE COLLEGE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT

Construction estimates rise

Ed Mahon

STATE COLLEGE — Preliminary estimates for two State College elementary school construction projects have increased by millions of dollars, although school officials caution that it's still early in the process.

The district won’t receive bids for the Ferguson Township and Boalsburg/Panorama Village projects until after March.

But administrators and district construction managers are creating estimates at different stages in the design development process for the Ferguson Township and Boalsburg/Panorama Village projects: with 30 percent, 60 percent and 90 percent complete. The 30 percent figures were presented Monday.

“That’s an important tool,” said physical plant director Ed Poprik, but he later added, “Every project I’ve ever been on, the 30 percent has been the highest estimate.”

In the 2008 master plan, the district’s planning firm, DeJong, estimated that construction on Ferguson Township and Boalsburg/Panorama Village schools would cost about $12.6 million each.

Not counting contingency and escalation costs, which weren’t included in the master plan figures, the school district is now estimating that it will spend $15.2 million on Ferguson and $14.5 million on Boalsburg/Panorama. The estimate for the Gray’s Woods addition remains at $1.2 million.

“Number one, the 2008 master plan was probably shooting a little bit low,” Poprik said.

He said DeJong’s estimates assumed the projects would cost $180 per square foot, which may have been the national estimate at the time. But in 2008, the Pennsylvania average was $205.40 per square foot.

The new buildings also include more physical education spaces, as well as more spaces for science, math and reading classes. Those extra academic spaces would differ in size from traditional classrooms and would be designed flexibly so that sections could be partitioned off depending on need.

Poprik laid out the following calendar: Dec. 21, the board receives the 60 percent estimate; Feb. 9, the board holds an Act 34 hearing — the total cost can’t increase by more than 8 percent at this point; March 22, the board approves the final estimate with PlanCon Parts D and E, steps in the state-regulated construction process that has 11 steps, from A to K; May 24, after bids are received, the board will approve PlanCon Part G, which includes actual cost.