Wilson school cost rises

The new Youngstown middle school will be built at the site of the former Wilson High School.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The cost of the proposed Wilson Middle School has risen 35 percent since the project budget was first set in 2004.

The city school board has learned that the original $9.1 million price now stands at an estimated $12.4 million.

A representative of BHSM Architects said the rise in cost is due to a number of factors, including the board’s decision to add about 2,000 square feet of common gathering space to the building (referred to as a “locally funded initiative”), changing some roofs from flat to sloped and the rising cost of construction materials since the original budget was prepared.

The Ohio School Facilities Commission is expected to pick up 80 percent of the construction costs, excluding the locally funded initiatives, which total around $600,000, although the state agency has yet to sign off on the new budget figures.

School officials are hoping to get OSFC approval this week.

The project architect has done some redesign in an effort to reduce the total cost, but those numbers aren’t available yet.

However, Steven Ludwinski, senior project manager for Heery International, Inc., the school district’s school rebuilding project manager, said there won’t be enough redesign to cut $3 million from the proposed cost.

The building is designed to house 350 pupils in sixth through eighth grades.

The board approved the design development documents last week and the project now moves to the construction design stage. The new structure will be erected on the Gibson Avenue site of the old Wilson High School, which has been razed.

School board members expressed concern that the district might not have the money for the local share.

William Johnson, district treasurer, said sufficient funds may be available but the district won’t know for sure until the OSFC approves the new building budget.

The district is replacing its Wilson and Rayen high schools with middle schools as part of a $180 million, 14-structure rebuilding program, but there is now some debate as to whether the Rayen Middle School will be built as a stand-alone facility as originally proposed or as an addition to Harding Elementary School on Cordova Avenue, which is adjacent to the Rayen site off Benita Avenue.

Costs are a factor in that debate, and school officials said they are with the OSFC about the Rayen school as well.

Harding was one of the first buildings replaced about four years ago in the overall rebuilding program.

Rayen was proposed as a sixth-through-eighth-grade middle school, but erecting it as an addition to Harding would create a K-8 building.

gwin@vindy.com