State College Area School District’s options for elementary school projects are coming further into focus, and a final decision could be made this month.
Architect Jeff Straub from Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates explained to the school board on Monday the firm’s analysis of options for new construction or additions and renovations for Houserville, Radio Park and Corl Street elementary schools.
Straub said that after consulting with mechanical engineers and food consultants, CRA found that new construction for sections of Houserville and Radio Park would cost about $4 million more than additions and renovations to those same sections.
For a 31,000 square feet section at Radio Park, new construction would cost $2,469,300 more than renovating the space in the existing building shell. At Houserville, new construction would cost $1,594,950 more. Renovations and additions for both buildings are estimated at about $19 million each.
At Corl Street, new construction isn’t possible because the restrictions of the site footprint would require moving students to another school during the work. New construction at Radio Park also would require moving the adjacent transportation services.
“After full review, renovations and utilization of existing buildings appears to substantially more cost effective than building from new,” CRA said in a letter to the district.
With four project options remaining, SCASD is recommending eliminating three, based on the analysis. Those options included a mix of new construction and additions/renovations. The remaining option calls for additions/renovations at each of the three schools. Straub added that 74 percent of current school projects in the state are additions and renovations as opposed to new construction.
At its Sept. 26 meeting, the board eliminated four project options from an initial list of eight based on a demographic analysis and a desired capacity of 400 to 529 students per school. Each of the remaining options included keeping Corl Street open. In all project options Houserville and Lemont schools will be merged and the Lemont building will be repurposed.
The board is scheduled to make a final decision at its Nov. 14 meeting, but it could be made as soon as Oct. 24. A public planning forum will be held at 7 p.m on Monday, Oct. 17, at Mount Nittany Middle School.
The district has received $3.8 million in grants for the projects from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. It also is eligible for $2.2 to $2.4 million for two projects from PlanCon, the state’s school construction reimbursement program.
Houserville and Radio Park were listed as the potential projects for the DCED grant, and to receive that money the work must be substantially completed by June 30, 2019. The design stage would likely begin in November, with construction beginning next fall. The process for Corl Street could begin at the same time or later.
The projects would likely be done in two phases, with new additions first so students could move into them while renovations are then done on existing spaces.
State High Project
The board approved multiple change orders for the State Project. They included three orders totaling $141,338 related to rock excavation and removal and $19,199 to add a natural gas line extension.
Two orders will return money to the project, with a credit of $1,380 credit for re-using a gate at the south track and a credit of $3,144 for adding drywall where asbestos was removed from the South Auditorium. The drywall had been included in the scope of work for the general contractor and asbestos contractor and is being removed from the latter.
