Building won't be ready, so RI schools pitch ideas to cope

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By Sheena Dooley | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 |

Backup plans are in the works as Rock Island school officials face the reality that construction on the district’s first new elementary school in three decades most likely won’t be completed by their August 2009 timeline.

School board members for the Rock Island-Milan School District were presented with a proposed contingency plan Tuesday night for how leaders will implement their “Building Excellence” plan if the new math and science magnet school and an addition to the Primary Academy aren’t completed by the start of the 2009-10 school year. It includes:

n Students who are supposed to attend the new school at the former Villa de Chantal site, 2101 16th St., will be split between Horace Mann Choice School and Audubon Elementary School. Preschool through second-graders will attend Horace Mann, while students in grades 3 to 6 will attend Audubon.

n The Primary and Intermediate academies will both continue to house students until the addition at the Primary Academy is finished.

n Students will move into their new schools at the end of fall break in October or during the semester break in December, depending on when construction is completed, said Mike Oberhaus, the district’s associate superintendent for operations and quality.

The plans hinge on additions at Longfellow and Eugene Field elementary schools being finished by August 2009, which Oberhaus said could realistically happen.

“There is a high probability the new school won’t be open by August 2009 and the Academy addition won’t be completed,” Oberhaus said. “The question is can we still implement the transition of students? We believe we can.”

A committee of parents, staff and community members will meet in the coming weeks to discuss the contingency plan, including their concerns and possible obstacles the district might face. They will bring a recommendation to Rick Loy, Rock Island superintendent, in October on whether they think the plan will work. Loy will then bring his final recommendation to the board if it is needed.

School board members originally signed off last fall on the “Building Excellence” plan, which calls for the district to overhaul its elementary and junior high schools and was expected to cost $22 million. But skyrocketing construction costs have forced leaders to scale back the projects, leading to delays in moving their plans forward.

Officials were dealt their first financial setback last month when the lowest bid for the 64,400-square-foot new school came in at $14.1 million. Architects for Shive-Hattery, the Moline architect and engineering firm hired to design the school, blamed increases in the cost of steel and other building materials for the price that was almost $4 million higher than expected.

District leaders worked with architects and a design team of community members, district staff and parents to scale back the project. In all, they trimmed $3.1 million from the design and expect to put it back out for bids in August.

The new school wasn’t the only project to have bids come in higher than anticipated. The board received final estimates for the addition to Primary Academy earlier this month that showed the project was $1.1 million above budget. Board members asked district leaders to trim costs on the design, which delayed the district in putting it out for bids.

Oberhaus said it will be at least two more weeks until leaders put the Primary Academy addition out to bid. The district won’t solicit bids for the new school for another four to five weeks.

It takes four weeks for bids to come back, Oberhaus said. When the district receives them, leaders will have a better idea of the effect the delays will have on their timeline.

Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.