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Work on new school planned for November

By Amber Peabody

This document was published online on Thursday, September 25, 2008

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Work on the new Sunset School in east Cody could begin in November.

On Monday the School Facilities Commission met with Cody School District, Plan One Architects and Groathouse Construction officials to discuss 35 percent value engineering.

“The plans are essentially complete but it's another opportunity for the district, architects, construction group and the state team to make final tweaks in the plan so we can move forward,” Superintendent Bryan Monteith said.

Once the design adjustments are made the district hopes to split the work into two contracts and begin initial site work in November. If the SFC denies the split the project would not begin until early 2009.

“We're about a year behind where we thought we'd be at this time,” Monteith said.

The SFC allotted $7 million of emergency funds in March 2007 to get the project started.

“We thought we'd be able to hit the ground running and push through the design process so we could break ground in late 2007 or early 2008,” Monteith said.

However, the district had to wait for the contracted money from the SFC to begin the design process. Then changes made at the 5 and 10 percent value engineering meetings, and finding time for the SFC and district to meet to review the plans caused more delays.

“Because we thought we'd be delayed (at 35 percent) we drew up two sets of contracts with one to allow for basic site work,” Monteith said. “We're hoping to get that approved so we can start that while we're still working on the inside plans.”

Groathouse must submit a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for the project to the state before construction can start. Monteith said SFC members said they would be more favorable to splitting the contracts if a GMP is submitted soon.

He added the district hopes to have the dirt work completed, foundation laid and have utility connectivity this fall and winter.

The 54,055-square foot facility is slated to take 18 months to complete and will cost about $13 million. The school will be on an 11-acre site near the corner of 29th and East Sheridan. It should be ready for occupancy by Fall 2010.

Sunset will be a K-5 school with three classrooms in each grade. The classroom wings are in a pod formation with pull-out areas outside the rooms for smaller group work such as Learning Academy, which allows students to work on mastering standards.

The school will serve the needs of about 325 kindergarten through fifth grade students and will provide services for numerous children who receive special education services at the elementary level.

While most of the cost will be paid by the SFC, the Cody School Board also has committed a significant amount to make upgrades.

An additional class room has been added to the plans. It will possibly house the Stargate gifted program. The board also approved extending the gym to regulation size, with seating for 400 and wood floors. The original gym was about half the size of a full gym and had a tile floor.

The total cost for all the additions will be about $930,000.

(Amber Peabody can be reached at amber@codyenterprise.com.)

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