The Oswego Community Unit School District 308 School Board will have its hands full of information Monday night at its regular meeting planned for 7 p.m. in the community room.
RSP & Associates, the group hired by the district to complete an updated enrollment study regarding a proposed third high school, will deliver its report to the board. According to board documents, district enrollment for the 2011-12 school year is 16,832, and projected for 2012-13 at 17,317, 2013-14 at 17,730 and by 2020-21 at 20,845.
Projections for the high schools alone show OHS at anywhere from 2,511 to 2,877 students by 2015-16. This figure is based on student residence information and not student attendance numbers. Student attendance figures show a possible range of 2,276 to 2,634 for the same year. Capacity for OHS is shown at 2,400.
For OEHS, also with a 2,400 capacity shown by RSP, 2015-16 numbers show a range of 2,454 to 2,681 students based on residence information and 2,623 to 2,842 based on attendance information.
The board will also hear presentations from the two architectural firms tasked with delivering projections on additions to OHS and OEHS.
According to preliminary estimates from Kluber Architects and Engineers Bringing OEHS to a maximum capacity of 3,200 students will cost the district $39.4 million. ATS&R Architects will present the board with their plan in six steps for its addition at OHS. Those steps range in cost from $32.6 million to $42.29 million.
Also on the agenda is a vote that would have all district administrator’s paying 20 percent of their monthly health care premiums—a campaign pledge made by Board President Bill Walsh. This would go into affect in the 2012-2013 school year. If the board should negotiate a greater district premium contribution with unionized employees, administrators would be also be subject to that same amount.
For the complete board agenda, including supporting documents, log on to the district’s website.
When I add up the two addition costs on the low end, I come up with approx. $72 million for an additional 1600 capacity. Comparing that with $104 million for an additional 2400 capacity and the cost per student and the third HS come out to be less expensive per student.
http://oswego.patch.com/articles/high-school-overcrowding-discussion-continued-to-june-27
Figure another 100 grand savings in blueprint and spec printing costs by purchasing used equipment and doing that chore in-house (its NOT rocket science folks and the equipment is readily available for pennies on the market). Then we have the artificial turf item. 850 grand...per school. Temporary heat costs of 100 grand...how about we schedule the project to minimize the need for that item.Buy or rent portable commercial ELECTRIC heaters and tap the existing electric as needed. HUGE savings. Whenever an estimate is done by an entity that stands to be paid based upon a percentage of the costs, then the motivation to reduce costs is reduced. Some of these "opinions" are archaic and inflated, with no regard to the abilities of the construction team OSD has in-house. The Facilities/Construction Director gets paid a decent wage to perform these duties, so let them do the estimates. Unless they were just "check writing bureacrats" they should know how to cut 25-30% on many items.
If the GC or CM is limited by contract to 3.5% profit after audit, then a base project of 80 million dollars would get them 2.8 million, plus profits on extras. So, if the GC or CM has these figures in mind and provide those services in their contract, then why do we pay 1.125 million in redundancy? If the "opinions" are suggesting that 1.125 million dollars CM fees for a project of this scope spread over 3 years are reasonable, then somebody is woefully optimistic or is buying very poor talent. The figures come from the 308 website. You have to really dig to get them, but they are there, along with the vendors' (the people we paid for the "opinions") disclaimer regarding the accuracy of those figures.