Columbia Public Schools maxes out budget for Douglass renovations
The Columbia Public Schools district has maxed out the budget for renovations to Douglass High School.
“We have come to the max of our allocated budget for Douglass High School,” Jonathan Sessions, CPS board member said.
“That is a project that has, we knew we going to walk into a find a lot of known unknowns,” Sessions said. “We knew there were going to be things we had no idea what they were and how much they were going to cost once we tore down this wall, tore up this floor, (that) kind of thing.”
In February, the district had about 19 change orders. There are five more listed on Monday night’s consent agenda for the CPS board meeting. Sessions said if a change order is under $5,000, it can go directly to the consent agenda and not necessarily be discussed or debated by the board.
“So there have been a lot of change orders purely because as work has progressed we’ve discovered things that need to corrected or improved, fixed or repaired,” Sessions said.
To pay for the additional change orders, Sessions said the district is using funds left over from a project that came in under budget.
“We had some funds left over from coming in under budget with the Early Childhood Center so we’re taking those extra funds we had from coming in under budget and reorienting them toward the Douglass project,” Sessions said.
The Douglass renovations were budgeted at $4.9 million with an additional $360,000 for contingencies or change orders.
“This is the first project in the entire — we’re in year seven of our 10-year bond plan — this is the first project that has not come in ahead of schedule and under budget,” Sessions said. “This one will no doubt come in on time and ahead of schedule but we have had to invest some more funds in it.”
Sessions said renovating older buildings, like Douglass High, which was built in the early 1900s, is difficult because there’s likely no original architectural plans for the building.
“These are buildings that when you have to do repairs or have to do major renovations like we’re doing now, you’re walking in somewhat blind to what’s behind the wall, what’s under the floor,” Sessions said. “We just had a lot of little things that we needed to correct and they add up … Preserving history comes with a price but we’re happy to spend it.”
