Plans to revamp a local elementary school are running into some sizable price increases.

Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. recently approved a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) of $8,134,451 for a portion of the work included in Parkside Elementary renovations. While this does not represent the full cost of the project, which was previously estimated to cost $12 million, items within the pricing show significant increases from July expectations — as much as 112%, in the case of framing and drywall.

As of mid-July, BCSC officials expected major work on the renovations to begin in October, with the project taking place in phases and completion scheduled for 2024. Plans include a new STEM lab, an emotional wellness center, “single-user locking restrooms,” flexible learning spaces and enhanced technology. Maxwell Construction is the lead contractor and will work alongside architecture firm CSO.

“This is a little bit of a different process than what you’re used to,” BCSC Director of Operations Brett Boezeman told the school board. “Maxwell, as you recall, we approved a contract with them to serve as our construction manager as constructor back in February. Typically, you’re used to seeing and approving low bids, lowest responsive bids on packages.”

As part of the construction manager as constructor process, the board will instead approve the guaranteed maximum prices and amendments to these amounts. The $8.1 million price structure included general trades, countertops, framing, drywall, flooring, tile, windows, glazing, electrical work, paint, alternates and soft costs.

HVAC, plumbing, sitework and concrete bid packages are not included. According to Boezeman, these categories came back higher than expected, so they will be rebid in the near future in hopes of finding better prices.

Assistant Superintendent of Finance Chad Phillips noted that since HVAC upgrades are an eligible expense for Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds received by schools, many school districts across the state and country are working on these kinds of projects, which drives the prices up.

In his presentation, Boezeman showed the difference between Maxwell’s July 5 estimates for each category and the bids opened on Aug. 3. He said that inflation and volatile market conditions have impacted the project.

While the cost of flooring and tile was close to the July estimate and the amount for countertops was actually 35% lower, other categories showed increases ranging from about 10 to 20%.

Framing and drywall showed the most drastic increase. It was estimated at about $500,000 in July and now totals $1,057,800. Jeff Lyness with Maxwell Construction said that the scope of work was expanded slightly in final documents.

“We had, I think, two bidders in that category,” he said. “And it wasn’t a straightforward production job; we’ve got a lot of bulkheads, a lot of small portion walls and the marketplace pricing came back quite higher than what we estimated. And I think that was given just coming off a busy construction period, and people in the business analyzing this project and what their cost to do it is was different than our estimate.”

Additionally, the new total for electrical work was $1,185,000, 56% higher than the $757,548 estimate given in July. Lyness said that the scope of this category was expanded in areas such as fire alarm work. He added they’re looking for opportunities to “value engineer” in this area and find savings.

However, despite the increases, the district does not plan to make drastic cuts to the renovations.

“We didn’t really want to reduce the scope of the project and slice this thing back at Parkside to make it not the project that we think our teachers and kids deserve,” said Boezeman.

When asked why officials chose to include some of the increased costs and exclude others, Boezeman said that HVAC and plumbing can be rebid without a major risk of delaying the project. The district will also reduce the scope of this work slightly, which will produce some savings.

Additionally, the site work and concrete work isn’t slated to take place until the summer of 2023, so school officials plan to rebid those items later this year or in late winter and still expect to remain on track.

“All those other items, we would be taking a pretty big gamble to be pushing the project off,” said Boezeman.

Board member Julie Bilz asked if there’s any concern that supply chain issues may affect the project.

“There is major concern with the construction market moving forward,” said Lyness. “We’re surprised daily with new things that we can or cannot get, but we try to use our past information that we’ve been building for the past two years in these conditions, and knowing what are long lead items and what are not.”

The company also discusses lead times with vendors as part of post-bid interviews. At present, it seems like all items will meet the project schedule, but Lyness acknowledged that there could be surprises down the road.

In the case of another school project Maxwell is working on, an HVAC unit was ordered in February of 2021 and has not arrived on the work site yet. It was supposed to be there this summer, and the construction company just recently received word that the final pieces are coming in.

“We could’ve never predicted that, even at the beginning of this summer, but that’s the reality of our business, and our job is trying to manage that,” said Lyness. “But I feel good about the parts and pieces we have on this job that we should make the schedule fine.”

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