A.S. Rhodes school renovation project to be rebid with differing criteria

FRONT ROYAL – A.S. Rhodes Elementary School students, staff and the community will have to put up with major renovations during the upcoming 2019-2020 school year now that the construction project re-bid process is a go.

“We’re excited to go back out for bid at the end of the month,” said Melody Sheppard, assistant superintendent for administration at Warren County Public Schools (WCPS).

Warren County School Board members learned during a work session tucked into their regular meeting on August 7 that the scheduled bid date is August 20. Bids will be due by September 19 with an expected award date set for October 1, according to Andrew Grant, project architect and department head for the architectural and engineering firm of OWPR Inc. in Blacksburg, VA, who gave School Board members information on the project’s direction.

The re-bid process follows a June decision by the School Board to put the A.S. Rhodes renovation on hold after receiving only one overpriced bid “that was significantly more than what was budgeted for the project,” Sheppard said.

Currently, WCPS has $2.9 million available for the school’s renovations, she added, an amount that takes into account the money already spent on the school’s asbestos abatement and shingled roof work completed this summer, as well as related bid advertising costs.

“We’re looking forward to the project bids coming in under that amount when we get them,” said Sheppard.

Grant outlined several cost reductions in the re-bid, including changing the specification to allow for more competitive pricing for the rooftop units; changing the phasing plans to allow for two-thirds of the school to be renovated in phase one; removing evening and weekend schedule requirements; and reducing the general contingency from $125,000 to $100,000.

Grant told School Board members that he thinks the biggest item that will reduce costs in this next bid advertisement is allowing the contractor to have 75 percent of the school area to start the renovations rather than having to “jump around between classrooms” to do work.

The re-bid will require the contractor to work during the school day rather than alternate hours as proposed in the previous bid, which required work to be done from 3 p.m. until midnight after the school day was done and on weekends.

“There will certainly be growing pains, no doubt, as with any construction project,” said Grant.

Sheppard noted that WCPS personnel are working out details on modular units where classrooms can go while renovations are being completed. She said PE and art classes will be held in the classrooms.

One big pain during the renovations will be lunchtime. “It’ll be inconvenient to go to the cafeteria because it will be by an outside entrance,” Sheppard said, adding that because it is construction, some disruption can be expected.

The timing for the re-bid process also should encourage more contractor bids, said Grant, because more companies will be looking for wintertime work and will be able to hire more available electrical and mechanical subcontractors.

“I think those were two of the biggest factors in why the [previous bid] price was what it was,” he said, referring to what he called “an outrageous” roughly $6 million bid.

WCPS Superintendent Greg Drescher said the project schedule is still anticipated to have the work at A.S. Rhodes finished around the same time next summer.

According to Grant’s summary of the re-bid for the renovations, substantial completion for phase one of the project is slated for March 17, 2020 — taking roughly 5.5 months from the project’s start date — while substantial completion of phase two is scheduled to take three months and be finished by June 12, 2020.

The final completion date for the project is July 10, 2020 for work that includes providing and installing casework and sinks in some classrooms, as well as new flooring throughout the school; constructing a front porch and entry work with new columns and a new concrete handicap access ramp; replacing exterior windows; and replacing the mechanical unit at the multi-purpose building.

Click here to download floor plans.