Posted 12:18 am Monday, July 06, 2009
Buildings Go Up For TISD's New Elementary Schools
By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer
The new elementary schools Tyler ISD is building as part of the Phase 2 bond program are taking shape as construction progresses according to plan, officials said.
Staff Writer
The new elementary schools Tyler ISD is building as part of the Phase 2 bond program are taking shape as construction progresses according to plan, officials said.
All but one of the five replacement schools voters approved in the $124.9 million bond program will open in August 2010.
Construction continues on the new Clarkston Elementary School. Photo taken by Mark Roberts on July 2, 2009 in Tyler, TX.
It is likely that the new Griffin Elementary School will be complete in December 2010 because of a delay in finding property.
All but one of the five replacement schools voters approved in the $124.9 million bond program will open in August 2010.
It is likely that the new Griffin Elementary School will be complete in December 2010 because of a delay in finding property.
The other schools -- Clarkston, Orr, Woods and the school that combines Mattie Jones Elementary and the St. Louis School/Wayne D. Boshears Center for Exceptional Programs a school for students with special needs -- are progressing as scheduled, although officials said Clarkston Elementary is about a month ahead of the others.
"We feel really good about where we are right now," Tyler ISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said. "In the whole mix of things, the only thing that's been delayed in any way, form or fashion is obviously the start of Griffin, but we don't believe from the way the pricing has been going in recent months that is going to have any significant impact on our price of the building. The construction costs are holding steady right now."
Tim Loper, director of facilities at TISD, said the district is very pleased with the construction firms.
Denson Construction Co. is building the new Jones/Boshears, Griffin, Woods and Orr schools, while RPR Construction Co. is building the new Clarkston Elementary.
"These projects are running within the budgets that we've established," Loper said. "We anticipate no problems. We have excellent subcontractors on these projects."
The construction on Clarkston, Woods and Orr all began the last week of February. The site work on Jones-Boshears began in March, and the construction work on that building began a month later.
Monte Robinett, TISD's construction project manager, said currently those projects are running on or ahead of schedule.
Robinett said there are slabs poured on all four of the current projects and structural steel is being erected on three of the four.
"We are very pleased not only with the schedule our contractors are maintaining but with the quality of work that they are doing," he said.
Robinett said that at Orr Elementary about 75 to 80 percent of the slabs are poured and workers are erecting steel on the two-story portion.
Woods has its two-story wing poured and a portion of the single story wing poured. Workers are erecting steel on the gym, cafeteria and music room, he said.
Clarkston has about 70 percent of its structural steel erected. About two-thirds of the second story slab is poured, he said.
At Jones-Boshears, the slab is poured on the Jones Elementary School side, which is the two-story area. The administration area slab is poured as is the slab around the perimeter of the arena. The kitchen, gym and cafeteria will probably be poured the latter part of this week, Robinett said. Then workers will get started on the Boshears side, which is a single-story structure.
Robinett said each site is unique with its own set of problems.
"The contractors have overcome these problems remarkably well," he said. "They know when they've got to be finished and we're not getting any excuses."
What's next for these schools is more steel erection for the next month, Robinett said.
The next milestone after steel erection will be "building dry in," he said. That means that when it rains, no water will get inside the buildings, which will mean all the outside walls are up, windows in and the roof is on.
"Then you can start your finishes," Robinett said.
He expects Clarkston will be "dried in" in about a month with the others about two to three weeks behind that, he said.
Clarkston is farther ahead in the construction process than the other schools, in part, because of not having to build a temporary retaining wall before building the permanent one, as was originally planned, officials said. Clarkston Principal Kathryn Letsinger, as well as Robinett and Loper, were able to figure out a way to go ahead and demolish the gym so that could happen, saving time and money.
"That really turned them loose," Loper said. "It was all team work. Sometimes you just have to look for windows of opportunity and take them."
TISD Board President Ron Vickery said that so far, he is very pleased with the progress of the schools being built in this bond program.
"I think Tim Loper and Monte Robinett have done a great job of getting these projects pulled together and out to bid in a timely manner," he said. "As we get the monthly reports at our board meetings, we're real pleased to learn that the bids are coming in at or below where we thought these projects would be. With the economy the way it is, there's a lot of people that are bidding some quality work for very good prices for us."
These five new schools make up "Phase 2" of a multi-phased approach at addressing facility needs in TISD.
Phase 1 included construction of Bell, Ramey, Douglas, Austin, Bonner and Peete elementary schools -- and one new campus, Jack Elementary. Peete, the last of the seven to be finished, opened in January 2008.
Looking ahead to next year, Loper said this time next year will be very busy.
"We'll be, at that point, moving teachers, moving furniture, stocking the schools with furniture," he said. "It will be a fast and furious summer because we will basically move St. Louis, Jones, Clarkston, Orr and Woods at the same time."
Griffin
The plans are under way for the design of the new Griffin building, Robinett said. TISD expects to go out for bid on that project in September.
Loper and Robinett expect to ask the board for approval of a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) on the school Oct. 15 and hope to begin construction Oct. 16, they said.
Loper said the project is running six months behind because of the need to locate property for that building.
He said Griffin will have a mid-term opening in the 2010-11 school year if the district chooses to make move into the building during the Christmas break, which he said is the goal.
The location of Griffin, and the opening date for the new school, was delayed after the district's initial proposal for its location was met with resistance from the Griffin community in February.
The prior proposal was to swap land with the city to allow TISD to build the new Griffin Elementary on a portion of Woldert Park, a city park across the street from the school. Under the proposal, once the new Griffin was built and the old school was torn down, a park would be created where the old school was -- with upgraded amenities -- that TISD would pay for.
While community members supported the new school, no one spoke in favor of the "land swap" proposal at a community meeting to discuss the issue. Community members voiced concerns about traffic congestion, impact on the history of the park and the type of activity a public park could bring into their neighborhood.
In May, it was announced that the new two-story Griffin Elementary will be located on property owned by TISD, next to Dogan Middle School and near the corner of Broadway Avenue and 28th Street, which TISD plans to extend to Broadway.
Preliminary designs show a rotunda entryway for Griffin, which will be about 90,000 square feet and bigger than the Jack Elementary model from the Phase 1 bond program.
Clarkston and Jones/Boshears will have different designs as well. Woods and Orr will have designs similar to the Jack Elementary model.
Possible Phase 3
Reid said he expects "strong conversations" to begin about what the district needs to think about for the next bond issue in the fall.
"I want to get these buildings all under way and get all these construction projects started before we dive into that next conversation," Reid said. "I'm still hopeful that we won't have any significant period of time between bonds. Right now we're in a slow down with inflation but it could kick back up again or maybe even accelerate. The quicker we can get these things going, the better off we are."
The superintendent added that the district is going to watch the economy and make sure as it moves forward with this construction and potential plans for future bond issues, "that we're paying close to attention to what's happening out there in the community as far as the economic circumstances are concerned and make sure that we are sensitive to those things and yet at the same time trying to make sure we move forward with our program and continue to upgrade our facilities."
