Rising costs of materials affecting safe room project

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The rising costs of construction materials due to COVID-19 are impacting the current budget for Sikeston R-6 School District's kindergarten center's safe room project. However, the district's construction of Lee Hunter and C Building remain on budget.

"Due to COVID-19 and materials and just some delays with materials, we're estimating the district's out-of-pocket cost of completing the Kindergarten Center safe room right now to be $1,512,928," Sikeston R-6 Superintendent Dr. Tony Robinson told the Board of Education during its regular meeting Tuesday at Central Office. "That is an increase from when we first started this when we were estimating about $542,000 to be the district's out-of-pocket cost."

The district received a SEMA/FEMA grant to cover 75% of the cost to construct a multipurpose room/safe space at the Kindergarten Center with the district contributing 25% of the cost.

Robinson said he, Kindergarten Center Principal Jenny Hobeck and R-6 Director of Finance Cheryl Essner have been in meetings to work on having a great facility but also reducing costs.

"We still want a great building that stands the test of time," Robinson said.

The district is also working with its engineer, Toth Associates, and architect, Fleming, to do more valued engineering and have gotten that cost down $1.3 million, Robinson said. He noted there's still more work to be done because they've added some deductions that are part of the bid process.

"Right now we have not made a full commitment to this. I wanted to give an informational update so you can ask questions," Robinson told the Board.

The district is able to ask FEMA/SEMA for more funds, but it has to carry out the process to bid for FEMA/SEMA to have actual numbers, Robinson said.

"Then we can submit those numbers and make a request for more funds to cover the increased cost of our building from what was initially proposed, so that is was what we are going to do," Robinson said. "And I would come back to the board to get permission to proceed -- or not proceed -- because we do have the ability to opt out if we choose to."

Robinson said the district will follow the process to request more funding from FEMA/SEMA for its grant. If the request isn't approved, the district does not have to move forward with the project.

Other projects

In other construction news in the district, the Lee Hunter and C Building projects are moving along and on budget.

Jere Sheehan with Navigate Solutions provided an update on the district's construction projects underway.

"We are rolling," Sheehan told the Board on Tuesday.

Sheehan said the notice to proceed with construction on Lee Hunter was at the end of March, and the substantial completion date is spring 2022. The contract is $11,909,000.

"Gym foundations are poured," Sheehan said. "More foundations are continuing, and if you drive by, you'll see the south gym block wall is up about 12 feet and the east wall is about 3 or 4 feet."

A ribbon cutting is planned before school begins in August 2022.

For C Building, the notice to proceed with construction was received in early May, and substantial completion is spring 2022, Sheehan said. The contract is $5,637,220.

"Both of those projects, basically, we bought everything we possibly could at budget, and we got what we wanted," Sheehan said. "The good story there is we are on budget."

The work being doing now at the C Building sit is mobilization layout, Sheehan said.

"The excavator has taken some trees down and grass out and local utilities have done the water tap," he said. "Just the initial start and contractors pulled their trailer on site and construction sign is up."

The next steps for Lee Hunter are to continue foundations, continue masonry in the gym and then the cafeteria, Sheehan said, adding one of the next steps is to pour the slab in gymnasium.

For C Building, he said the next steps include site demolition, grading, site utilities and the groundbreaking, which was originally set for Thursday but postponed due to extremely wet conditions.

Also on Tuesday, the renaming of Sikeston High School's "C Building" was a topic of discussion by the Board.

Robinson said as construction is set to begin on the new high school building, which is currently named "C Building," the Board needed to have a conversation of whether they wanted to rename it.

"One of the ideas was to keep the building's name in context with the high school math and science building, and I wanted get your input and thoughts," Robinson told the Board on Tuesday.

One of the building name proposals Robinson received was "Humanities and Media Center." Another board member suggested "Language Arts Building."

Board member Renee Grimes said the only feedback she has about the building being named the "Humanities and Media Center" is that it's a mouthful.

Shannon Holifield, assistant superintendent for secondary education, noted high school administration thought students would likely nickname the building the "H&M" building or "HMC" if it were named "Humanities and Media Center."

"I think when you look at that rendering and it just has 'C Building' on it, it seemed so institutional," Holifield said. "If we're not going to call it anything but 'C,' then I think the signage should just be 'Sikeston High School,' and we just call it 'C.' I hate for us to just have 'C Building' on the front of the new building."

Robinson said discussions by administration will continue, and he will bring back more ideas for the Board to consider.