wallen@communitycommon.com

The Clay, New Boston and Washington-Nile (West) School Districts have seen there fair share of frustrations when it comes to the construction of new buildings for their district, some districts more than others. As a result of a meeting last week, Clay and West will soon be going out to bid on their project, while New Boston waits for answers.

“I think we’ve made a lot of strides in the last couple of weeks. We had originally had some estimate issues, it’s been a difficult thing. We’ve done some value engineering and we’ve looked at budget adjustments. During the last couple of weeks we have come to some resolution on those things with the OSFC (Ohio High School Facilities Commission,)” Tony Mantell, Superintendent of the Clay Local School District said. “It’s been challenging and frustrating at times but I think, the OSFC at this point has considered some of the issues and difficulties we’ve faced as a school district.”

Late last week the three superintendents traveled to Columbus to testify before the OSFC about the struggles they are facing with their building project. Both Clay and West requested budget adjustments on their projects. New Boston went there seeking answers.

“You do not really know if you need a budget adjustment until your bids come back. At that point you will really know. They (OSFC) have showed us they are flexible, they have indicated to us that the bidding environment in south central Ohio is pretty tough,” Mantell said. “According to Rich Murray, ‘there is a lack of competition among contractors.’"

Clay will begin advertising for bids on March 9th. On March 16th the district will hold a pre-bid meeting to answer any questions from any potential contractors. The bid opening is currently scheduled for April 6.

"This is a huge step for the district. This is what we have been waiting for, for many years. It will be a very exciting day. This kind of refuels us, we got excited with the groundbreaking then you have a downtime. Now we have refueled, we feel like we are moving forward and are ready to build a building,” Mantell said.

He said the district would hope to have construction started in early May, and be complete in late summer of 2011.

“We feel there has been a lot of hard work and a lot of effort put in by a lot of people to this point. But, we know that ultimately it's the greatest thing we can do, for our children here in Clay Township and all Clay students. This is when you start to see the fruits of your labor come together,” Mantell said. “It’s going to be wonderful to see the building come up out of the ground, I think our kids are very much going to enjoy watching it grow day by day.”

Construction has been delayed for several weeks now on the new Portsmouth West Middle School. The district held a bid opening earlier this year and discovered the bids came in 22 percent over original estimates. The district has been looking for ways to cut down the cost of the building while at the same time asking the state (Ohio) for more funding.

“We (Superintendents of the West, New Boston and Clay School Districts) went to the commission (OSFC) on Thursday, (February 25) requesting the amount of money needed for the project,” Patricia Ciraso Washington-Nile Superintendent said. “We have not been told anything since, I do not know what that means.”

She said the district has done value engineering of almost $700,000.

“These items (the items that had to be taken out of the plans for the new building due to value engineering) are necessary for a functional and efficient operation, items such as downgrading from block to drywall between classrooms, no curbing, no electrical gate for better safety at bus time, etc. have been deleted from the project.

Since Ohio School Facilities personnel and the construction manager have informed the district bids around the state are coming in at or below estimate, we believe market conditions in our county are much higher a fact, OSFC Director Richard Murray has publicly stated. We further believe OSFC has a responsibility to correct this market condition of which the district has absolutely no control. Because of this disparity the district is actively trying to convince the OSFC and some legislators of the need to restore the $700,000 to our budget. We find it reprehensible the students in Scioto County will be denied items children all around the state are getting in their projects because of conditions beyond our control,” a released statement from the district stated.

The district hopes to advertise for bids on March 9. “Unless the OSFC will provide assistance immediately, the project's quality will be greatly jeopardized. The community’s patience with the delays is greatly appreciated as we struggle to obtain the appropriate funding for our building as others in the state of Ohio have had,” Ciraso said.

Rick Savors, Chief of Communications for the OSFC said, “bidding is a difficult thing to fully understand, you'll have two buildings that are fairly similar in size and structure in two different parts of the state you’ll get great bids on one and you will get not great bids on the other. There can be a hundred different reasons for it including where the buildings are located, how much bid coverage you give, what the local conditions are, along with a variety of other reasons.”

“We are back at the point where the core team is trying to figure out what to do about this. We have given them (West School District) some suggestions and some recommendations on ways we might rebid the project. We are waiting for their lead as to which of the recommendations they would like to move forward with, or if they have other ideas,” Savors said.

New Boston Superintendent Mike Staggs has stated the districts new school project has been placed on-hold by the OSFC pending a review of the proposed site. The district is still seeing those frustrations.

“The whole thing has become political, it's not got the best interest of the kids in mind. I think all of that will be wrapped up very shortly and I think we will be building on our proposed current site,” Staggs said. “I think we just have to be patient.”

He said the district has spent thousands of dollars working with various people exploring other sites.

“If the people involved in this would have the kids in mind when they go into this, it would be a whole lot different,” Staggs said.

At the OSFC meeting last week Staggs said they stated the proposed site for the New Boston School was not suitable and would not give a reason why.

“We’ve got ten computers hooked up to one outlet, we're blowing circuits. We have 95 year old buildings that are not appropriate. I think the people of New Boston ought to be inflamed,” Staggs said.

“We (OSFC) have had a number of meetings and they are turning into weekly meetings with the core teams. We are going to take a look at the (New Boston) site, and take a look at alternative sites to see if we can't find one that would be suitable for building. In our mind it’s (the proposed site) not an optimal site for building. Because of the way it sits, the retaining wall and everything else. There are other sites that seem to be out there that would be better suited for this type of structure,” Savors said.