The McDonald County R-1 Board of Education, at its Jan. 10 meeting, voted to increase the budget for the FEMA safe room at Noel Primary School.
Jessica Struckhoff of Paragon told the board it hired a third-party estimator to do the cost estimate. The estimator told Struckhoff that the market is very volatile and that estimating is difficult. Struckhoff said the project is over budget at $4.9 million. She presented the board with some options to cut back on the project. She reported the only way to make a huge difference was to cut square feet. Another option was to increase the budget, she said.
Superintendent Mark Stanton said the $4.9 million figure makes him nervous because it is not a gross maximum price; it is just an estimate. He also noted the classroom space in the project is desperately needed.
The project includes a safe room and four classrooms. The board discussed the possibility of taking two classrooms off the design. Board member Andy McClain said he could not see doing that when there are still students going to class in trailers at the school.
"We just have to get students out of trailers. If we're building a FEMA shelter, we need to get the kids inside," he said.
The board unanimously voted to increase the budget by $500,000 and to accept an option Struckhoff offered that would reduce the height of precast panels on the safe room, thereby saving $50,000 to $60,000.
In other business, the board accepted a bid for three buses at $84,570 apiece for a total of $253,710. The school district is receiving a 25 percent grant, for which it has to take three old buses out of service, Stanton said. He presented a proposal from US Bank for financing at 3.17 percent, and the board approved it.
General News on 01/17/2019