The State College Area School Board on Monday approved the 90 percent design plans for renovations and new construction for three elementary schools.
The board also voted to approve the overall design plan for Memorial Field renovations, though the designs will undergo further refinements.
In 2016, the board voted to move ahead with updates for Corl Street, Houserville and Radio Park elementary schools to bring them in line with the district’s other elementary schools. Lemont Elementary will merge with Houserville in a new K-5 building at the Houserville site. Plans have been developed throughout this year for renovations and additions to Corl Street and Radio Park and a new school at the Houserville site.
At Corl Street, plans call for 64,086 square feet of additions and renovations with three classrooms per grade. About 54,000 square feet will be new construction. Architectural firm Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates’ low-bid estimate for the project is $17.63 million.
For the Houserville, total square footage for the new construction is 71,342 square feet with three classrooms per grade. CRA’s low-bid estimate is $20.65 million.
Radio Park has two possibilities included in the planning. Additions and renovations with three classrooms per grade would result in 80,173 square feet. An alternate bid with four classrooms per grade would add 8,865 square feet of classroom space to the project total. The estimated cost for the base bid is $21.62 million and $23.02 million for the alternate bid.
District administrators have said during the planning process that if the alternate bid isn’t selected, it’s possible some students at Radio Park could be displaced for part of the 2018-19 school year because of the limited amount of space for temporary trailers on the site during the construction phases.
The final costs for each project will be lowered by state grants and reimbursements. Houserville is expected to receive a $1.875 million grant and Radio Park a $1.96 million grant. All three projects also will receive reimbursements through the state’s PlanCon program for school construction.
Prior to the vote, district Business Administrator Randy Brown provided updated multi-year projections for the general fund and capital financing, showing that the district has capacity to take on the elementary school projects and Memorial Field renovations.
In discussion of the the plans, board member Laurel Zydney questioned the size of the projects, asking why the square footage is larger than Ferguson Township and Mount Nittany elementary schools, where work was completed earlier this decade. She said without the state reimbursements the projects are over the initial projected budgets and her expectation was the reimbursements would result in savings.
‘I’m very concerned about where we are,’ she said. ‘We do have the capacity, as we’ve just heard, but we do have other places where we can be spending our money on programs and kids.’
Mount Nittany was about 62,000 square feet and Ferguson Township about 65,000 square feet. While Corl Street plans are about the same size, Houserville and Radio Park are larger.
Brown and Crabtree Rohrbaugh architect Jeff Straub both said the Ferguson Township and Mount Nittany projects were part of the evaluation as designs were developed for the three schools.
‘Mount Nittany and Ferguson are great buildings, but every building afterwards you can go back and say ‘What could we have done a little bit different?’” Straub said. ‘We’ve had those discussions.’
He cited as an example music department space, which is larger in the designs for the current projects based on needs identified by the district. He also noted the split gymnasium and cafeteria for Houserville as another example.
The board is expected to vote on the final designs at its Sept. 25 meeting. Bids will be opened on Nov. 2 and awarded on Nov. 13, with construction slated to begin in January. The three schools will be completed in the summer of 2019. The official vote to close Lemont Elementary will take place on Feb. 11, 2018.
Memorial Field
The board approved overall Memorial Field renovation plans and removed an add-alternate of 500 seats in the south end zone and widening of the planned south end zone connector walkway.
The board approved a design option for the project earlier this year for new east side seating, spectator and team facilities and plazas and walkways at both ends of the stadium. A revision to the option, approved in May, preserves and repurposes the basement of the 131 W. Nittany Ave. building, the rest of which will be demolished. An alternate bid would have flexible locker rooms and training rooms along with a basement classroom and changing room under the concession plaza.
The potential addition of 500 seats was removed on recommendation of district administration. Memorial Field, with a current capacity of about 2,500, has sold out only once in the past three seasons. Coaches expressed concern about playing in front of empty seats, and the Facilities and Grounds Committee determined it was unlikely the $340,000 for the add alternate would be accepted.
The current design calls for a flexible central locker room that could be divided into as many as four spaces, which would allow for back-to back use. A potential addition of a larger press box is also under consideration. The design team will return with refinements to the plans in the fall.
The current base bid estimate is s $9,251,696. The basement classroom addition under the concession plaza would add $280,600.
A current project timeline calls for bids for the project to be awarded in May 2018. Construction would begin in December 2018 and be completed by January 2020.
