Elementary Construction on Schedule, Dipping into Contingency Budgets

Above: Construction work at the new site of Donley Elementary School. Photo: Erin Graham.

East Lansing school officials reported at their last regular Board meeting that both elementary schools under construction are on schedule. However, Donley Elementary school has gone around $865,000 into that school’s construction contingency budget so far, and Glencairn is around $554,000 into that school’s construction contingency budget.

At Donley Elementary, floors are about 40% complete, said Superintendent Dori Leyko, while underground work on plumbing and electricity are complete. Structural steel work started this week and site drainage work is about 50% complete. Masonry work at Donley is 75% done for the upper elementary wing, 30% for the lower elementary wing and 10% for the remaining portions of the new school.

Work at Glencairn Elementary school is not as far along as Donley because crews had to first demolish the previous building. However, the foundations are 90% complete, underground plumbing is 40% complete, and preparations for the south parking lot is about half done.

As for Pinecrest and Whitehills, administrators are working on designs and expect to schedule community forums for both schools in late October, Leyko said. Marble Elementary School will be the final school to be constructed, slated for the 2020-2021 school year.

Work on Phase 1 of Red Cedar Elementary remodeling was complete in time for the Glencairn population to move there temporarily this fall. About 95% of the “punch list items” are complete, Leyko said. After housing Glencairn and Pinecrest in 2019-2020, the renovations will continue based on how the Board decides to use the building. On Monday, Leyko said administrative discussions are ongoing as to how to redistrict the elementary school boundaries to include Red Cedar and proposals should be brought to an “upcoming Board meeting.”

School Finance Director Rich Pugh told the Board that the District has had to dip into its contingency fund for the construction underway at Donley Elementary due mainly to differences between what the administration estimated for costs and how the construction bids came in.

Donley’s construction budget (excluding the construction contingency budget of $1.2 million) for two phases of construction was $12.33 million but actual costs and estimates have risen to approximately $13.2 million. This means the school, so far, needs to pull $865,000 from its construction contingency fund leaving only $369,000 in its fund for any other increases during the project.

At Glencairn, the administration budgeted $12.08 million (excluding the construction contingency budget of $1.2 million) for the demolition and construction of the new building, with actual costs and estimates coming in at $12.64 million. That means Glencairn is spending around half of its $1.2 million contingency fund so far.

Renovations at Red Cedar were budgeted at $8 million (excluding the construction contingency budget of $869,000) and so far actual costs and estimates have come in at about $8.6 million, leaving about $303,000 in its contingency budget for Phase 2.

Pugh tells ELi “that estimates for phase 2 construction at Donley and Red Cedar have been projected to be $900,000 each and those estimated costs have already been included when looking at what funds remain.”

“Red Cedar is beautiful, the building is beautiful and I’m happy to see we are on progress as far as the other two buildings are concerned,” said Trustee Terah Chambers at the Board meeting. “We are all very concerned about staying on budget.”

Pugh said he was “not overly concerned” about the increase in costs of construction, saying that it is not uncommon to see similar changes in large projects and that if they continue to overspend in construction, the administration would able to find savings in other budgets included in the new elementary school bond.

David Warner, project manager for Clark Construction, said that now that both of the current projects are “above ground” he does not expect any significant increases in costs.

“All the unknowns are known now,” Warner said.

Board President Kate Powers pointed out that there was a significant lapse in time between the time the District had to have a preliminary budget to the State – December 2016 – and the time that they requested bids for the project in February 2018.

“The costs of steel and other construction fees and labor got more expensive,” she said.

Leyko agreed, stating that because of the timing of the bond election, many crews were already booked for the summer. They hope to be able to have more competitive bids by starting that phase earlier for Whitehills, Pinecrest and Marble elementary schools.

In May 2017, East Lansing voters approved a bond for up to $93.7 million to build and furnish five elementary schools and renovate Red Cedar.

In other news Monday night:

• Leyko reported that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has tested the drinking water in all schools and reported it free of a group of manmade chemicals called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs)
• The Board of Education approved the hiring of Evan Martin, social studies teacher for MacDonald Middle School; Lauren Holmes, Pinecrest Elementary teacher, and Matthew Morales, Associate Principal at East Lansing High School.
• The Board also approved a cooperative agreement to combine gymnastics teams with DeWitt High School. The DeWitt team will practice and complete at East Lansing. Previously, they had a cooperative agreement with St. Johns but that program was discontinued, said High School Athletic Director, Nikki Norris. She expects four or five students from DeWitt would be joining the East Lansing program.

Note: After reading the original version of this article, Pugh took issue with ELi’s characterization of the construction projects as being “over budget,” writing, "We are not over budget. Contingency funds are a budget line item. To use contingency funds does not mean the project is over budget." The article’s headline was consequently changed from saying the buildings were “over budget” to saying they are using contingency funds. With Pugh’s assistance, we also amended and clarified some of the specific numbers, and we added a clarifying statement from him (“Pugh tells ELi…”). Click here to see a PDF provided to the Board showing escalation dollars reallocated for building construction.