Board awards contracts for Wilson Middle School
By Harold Gwin
Officials had warned in June that the job could come in as high as $13.2 million.
YOUNGSTOWN — Bids on the new Wilson Middle School came in much better than school officials had anticipated.
The school board voted Monday to award seven construction contracts for the new building that total about $10.5 million.
That’s $1.2 million higher than the original 2004 estimate on the project but nearly $2 million lower than the revised estimate school officials were given in June.
Rising costs of materials and fuel over the last four years were expected to drive the construction price up, officials were told.
Steve Ludwinski, senior project manager for Heery International Inc., the district’s project manager on its $190 million, 14-school rebuilding program, said the Wilson bids were very competitive and engineers worked closely with the bidders to keep costs as low as possible.
Only Wilson and the proposed Rayen Middle School remain on the project list, and the district doesn’t know yet if Rayen will be built as a free-standing facility or as an addition to the Harding Elementary School.
The district is in talks with the Ohio School Facilities Commission on that issue. The OSFC is picking up about 80 percent of the rebuilding construction costs.
School board member Anthony Catale, pointing out that there has been recent discussion in the community about the need for Wilson and Rayen based on declining enrollments, asked what the expected enrollment will be at Wilson.
Wendy Webb, superintendent, said the school, which will house the Alpha and Athena seventh- and eighth-grade gender schools, is expected to be about 325 at this time and could increase.
The school, at 66,568 square feet, is designed for 350.
Board member Lock P. Beachum Sr. asked if the district’s current total enrollment figures are available, and Webb replied that the tentative number shows a pupil population of 7,253. The district had about 7,700 enrolled at this time last year.
Shelley Murray, board president, asked about the current enrollment at the Alpha/Athena facility in the old Princeton School and the number of pupils enrolled at the current Volney Rogers Middle School in the old West Elementary on Hazelwood Avenue. A new Volney designed for 350 pupils is in the midst of construction now on South Schenley Avenue.
Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs, said Alpha/Athena has 300 children while Volney has about the same number.
Based on those numbers, “Wilson is definitely a necessity,” Murray said.
gwin@vindy.com
SEE ALSO: Wilson bids.