Bethel Park adds 'wish-list' items to high school project
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When bids to construct Bethel Park's new high school were unsealed earlier this month, they were surprisingly low: Roughly $70 million, about 18 percent below the expected amount.
The bid packages had included a number of wish-list alternatives, such as terrazzo flooring instead of linoleum and equipment for a television studio.
"We did it that way to lock in the price the bidder gave us," said Superintendent Thomas Knight.
Twenty-five such alternatives costing $2,717,790 were returned to the project, bringing the total cost of awarded contracts to $73,312,745, which was approved by 9-0 vote at a special meeting of the school board last Thursday.
A date for groundbreaking is expected to be announced shortly. Projected opening would be at the start of the 2012 school year.
The new high school project has actively consumed the better part of three years, but the decision-making is far from over. North Side-based Mascaro Construction will build the facility on Church Road, on the other side of the property where the current eight-building campus sits.
Weber Murphy Fox, assisted by the Hayes Design Group, are architects for the new school, and representatives addressed questions from several residents and board members at the meeting. Overseeing the project is Massaro Corp.
Bid totals do not include costs for fixtures and furniture -- estimated at $2 million -- or technology -- another $2 million -- or soft costs such as engineering and architectural fees and site work.
The new school will have 94 classrooms, a 1,300-seat auditorium, 2,350-seat gymnasium, eight-lane swimming pool, large-group instruction room doubling as a small theater, band room and cafeteria with an outdoor courtyard.
Some of what was put back into the project was relatively small: eight tennis courts built instead of six, and some big: $458,000 for new turf at the football stadium, $410,000 for the television studio equipment.
Board members said they hoped to ask the municipality if it might share in the replacement cost of turf down the road because the stadium is used for community events.
Lighting for the tennis courts will cost more than $200,000 but, as school board member Dan Duff noted, adding it now makes more sense: "If we decide to do that two years from now, we'd have to rip up the concrete to lay cable."
A handful of residents spoke at the meeting, one urging the board to "forget this whole plan."
A much-rumored digital scoreboard in the new school's gymnasium remains that: a rumor, said district spokeswoman Vicki Flotta.
There will be a four-sided scoreboard above the center of the basketball floor, but it will not have computerized screens.
The new high school was not the only business at hand last week. The school board unanimously approved the addition of a second resource officer in the district.
Currently, Bethel Park police office Jim Modrak serves primarily at the high school. The additional officer will be contracted to work three days per week or roughly 108 days a year at a cost of no more than $50,000.
"We would like to have all of the schools covered," said Nancy Rose, assistant superintendent. "Jim is wonderful, pro-active. The high school is his focus."
The second officer will allow Bethel Park to add more programs at all levels, she said. "This is about seeing police as community partners."
The district and the municipality will split the cost of the officer's salary, she said.
Correction/Clarification: (Published Aug. 29, 2009) Bethel Park schools will spend $458,000 to install synthetic turf on a practice field at the high school. This story as originally published Aug. 27, 2009 misidentified the expense.
First Published August 27, 2009 6:20 am
