Barrington Middle School estimate drops below $68.4M

More savings possible, says committee member

Posted 10/17/17

The project manager overseeing the construction of a new Barrington Middle School reported Monday night that the preliminary budget for the project is now $122,542 below the budget cap of $68.4 …

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Barrington Middle School estimate drops below $68.4M

More savings possible, says committee member

Posted

The project manager overseeing the construction of a new Barrington Middle School reported Monday night that the preliminary budget for the project is now $122,542 below the budget cap of $68.4 million.

"Financially, you're in a great place," Dan Tavares told members of the school building committee.

Officials have been working to lower the cost estimates for the project for months. Initial estimates for the work totaled around $80 million but town and school officials voted to limit the school bond to $68.4 million — an amount taxpayers approved at a vote last November.

Since the vote, members of the school building committee have whittled down costs where it was appropriate. During an interview last week, school building committee member Jeff Brenner offered an example of the cost-saving efforts: He said hundreds of thousands of dollars were saved when officials decided to install an in-ground sprinkler system that was similar to the current system.

"The top-of-the-line system is fine, but we think the current (type) of sprinkler system works fine," Mr. Brenner added. 

In addition to reducing the cost estimate to $68,277,458, officials have also included more than $5.5 million in contingencies. 

School building committee member Marc Zawatsky asked Mr. Tavares how Barrington's current cost estimates compare with other school projects he has worked on. Mr. Tavares said other districts, at this point in the planning process, are often making decisions to eliminate certain items from their plans.

"I think you're in a great position right now," he said. "Overall, you're in a good place… with that amount of contingencies."

Officials briefly discussed the cost estimates for furniture, fixtures, equipment and technology during Monday night's meeting. The committee has settled on an estimate of $1,700 per student for furniture, fixtures and equipment, for a project total of $1.53 million. A committee member asked if that was an appropriate amount to dedicate.

Mr. Tavares said it was, and offered a recent school construction project in Somerset and Berkeley, Mass. He said officials working on that project spent about $1,600 per student.

The committee has estimated the technology allowance at $1,200 per student. Mr. Tavares said that the Somerset-Berkeley project finished at less than $1,200 per student. Officials added that the technology costs in Barrington would likely be less because of the district's 1-to-1 initiative, which affords each student his or her own Chromebook computer, thereby lessening the need for computer labs in the new school.

The construction documents are now 60 percent complete, said Mr. Tavares. He added that two consulting firms had "reconciled" cost estimates for the project. Miyakoda Consulting and Faithful & Gould — Miyakoda works for the project architect Kaestle Boos Associates, while Faithful & Gould was hired as an independent third party — had reviewed the cost estimates for the project and finished only $4,000 apart. 

"I have never seen this happen before," said Mr. Tavares, "where the estimators reconciled $4,000 apart."

Reconciling cost estimates, said Mr. Tavares, is done in an effort to confirm the scope of the project and as a tool to ensure quality control.

Later in the meeting, Mr. Brenner said there were still areas that could be identified for further savings.

"We're at 60 percent," he said, referring to the construction documents.

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