Highland Park School Renovation Bids Come in More Than $1 Million Over Budget

The Board of Education heard a report Monday as part of its meeting on the status of a $13.1 million project to renovate and expand Highland Park Elementary School from architects associated with the project.

But afterwards board members said they were far from happy with what they heard.

That’s because architects from Gilbane Building Company and Moser Pilon Nelson Architects, the two firms handling the redesign of the school, told board members that construction bids on the project came in on average about $1.04 million more than anticipated.

Already a controversial project because it required a pair of referendums to appropriate the $13.1 million estimated to complete the final plans – voters approved an initial referendum for $8.5 million in 2008, but the school board had to return to voters in 2010 with a second request for an additional $4.6 million to accommodate increased student enrollment and new building standards – board members said they felt everything from “highly disappointed” to “betrayed” in a tense, at times curt exchange with the project’s architects.

“It’s just hard for me to comprehend how it can be so much over budget,” said Deborah Hagenow, a Republican member of the school board. Hagenow said the school board made a decision to renovate the existing building rather than build a new one because they thought doing so would save money, but that now she was beginning to believe that maybe they should have opted to simply knock the building down and start from scratch instead.

“After seeing this, I’m wondering if it would have been cost affect at this point to have done that in the first place,” said Hagenow.

Michael Crockett, a Republican member of the school board, told the architects that they had lost his confidence on the project.

“We counted on your guys numbers. Somebody out there screwed up,” Crockett said. “I have a tough time believing you. I’ve lost all credibility in you guys.“

Aaron Krueger, an architect from Gilbane, said the significantly higher than expected construction bids could be attributed to four primary factors: the building’s existing condition, a bid environment that he said was “extremely aggressive,” the project’s scope, and the high-performance building requirements it has to adhere to.

Krueger told the board that the higher bid estimates were not reason for alarm, because Gilbane intended to conduct extensive research interviews with the contractors that submitted bids below the estimated construction price to find out what standards they were using and identify potential ways to reduce costs. Krueger said it was Gilbane’s job to find a way that the building could be renovated and expanded for the $13.1 million already approved by voters.

“Ultimately yes,” Krueger said. “That’s why we’re here to assure everybody.”

John Parrinello, another architect from Gilbane, said that they were already beginning to explore ways to reduce the project’s costs.

“We’re looking at the bells and whistles,” Parrinello said. “There’s a few of those little items, those little nuggets, that we can do with out, and we are going to go after those little nuggets.”

But the architects’ words did little to allay the board’s fear.

Michael Rizzo, a Republican member of the school board, said he was “very concerned” about any cuts that would have to be made to the project.

“I will say myself that I am very disappointed,” Rizzo said. “The reality is that we know we are a $1 million over budget, and the only way to come in under budget is to cut some items out of there. And I am very concerned about what some of those items might be.”

While Crockett said that he felt “betrayed.”

“I kind of feel like we went and paid for a Mercedes and you’re going to give us a Hyundai,” Crockett said.

Rizzo said it was essential that the school be renovated on budget by the beginning of the 2012-13 school year, because Highland Park Elementary School was seen as the test model for the district’s nine other elementary schools, all of which will need renovations in the near future.

“We have to bring this school back online in a condition that the community expects,” Rizzo said. “This is critical for this community. We have nine more elementary schools that need work, and this is sort of the test school.”

During the renovation, Highland Park students will be relocated to Buckley and Martin elementary schools for the 2011-12 school year. The Hartford Courant reported that the project could be eligible for as much as 62-63 percent reimbursement from the state if it meets all criteria.