August 26, 2014 at 12:30 PM - Special Meeting of the Columbus Public Schools Board of Education

Discussion:  DLR President & Chief Operating Officer Charles Dalluge said he was honored to attend the school board meeting. He said DLR’s job is to make sure CPS has the best educational facility possible. Dalluge thanked the board for allowing DLR to be part of building the new high school. DLR Architect Pat Phelan said the new high school will be a 260,000 square foot building. He said the construction time frame will be 24 months. When the work starts does have some impact on when it can be done. Phelan said even though this is a site-adapt approach with Aberdeen High School being used as a starting point, there were changes that needed to be done to make it CPS’ building. The site is completely different. The soil condition needed to be looked at. Phelan said the foundation is also the most important point. As a result, Phelan said there is no way the building will be opened in August of 2016 without paying a premium. He said a more realistically date is December 2016 with a mid-term move in time. Phelan said with good planning and foresite, this can happen. He said he wants to make sure the board understands all the risk. Some of the risks can be controlled but some cannot. The weather is a big risk and a big unknown. Phelan said if it is Oct. 1 and it starts raining and rains for a while then all bets are off. One plus is the construction shouldn’t impact students that much since it is a new building. Phelan said a schedule should be established. Ken Curry asked what would have to be done to meet the August 2016 finish date. He asked if the construction would need to be accelerated. Chad Wiles from Hausmann Construction said the process would need to be accelerated four to five months, which isn’t really possible without adding greatly to the cost. He said employees would need to be paid overtime for four months. Wiles said it would be possible to accelerate for a month or so because of weather. Phelan said the board asked for a realistic timeline and that is what a December finish date would be. The attorney set a date for architect and construction firm based on a different model and not based on a construction manager at risk model. Dr. Loeffelholz said 90 percent of the time with a bond issue, there is a building design already in place. CPS did not want to have a design until the people gave permission to move forward, he said. Phelan said the bond passed on May 15, and the board and administration spent a month and half touring buildings. Aberdeen was not chosen as a starting point until July 1. He said the district is on track for getting the pregrading out. Phelan said there was also a difference in what starting the project meant. To DLR, starting the project was moving dirt and for Hausmann Construction starting the project was beginning to build. Phelan said the drawings are 90 percent complete. He said he is hoping to get bids backSeptember 18th and begin dirt work on Oct. 1 to get dirt work done. Alan Dostal said things can be managed and the board and administration picked a great team. Dostal stressed that if there is a schedule issue, the architect/engineer and contractor need to work closely together to address the issue immediately. He cautioned Phelan and Wiles that if they lose time on the front end they can't get it back.