Bethel Park board approves change orders, hears construction update on new K–5 school

The Bethel Park School District Board of School Directors heard a construction progress presentation from Acero representatives and voted 9-0 to approve change orders on the new K–5 elementary school project.

Acero’s representative showed photos of exterior sheathing, brick veneer starting, a nearly completed gymnasium/storm-shelter roof, and interior progress in classroom wings and mechanical spaces. The presentation noted the project was more than 380 days without a recordable safety incident and that crews were focusing on getting the building “dried in” — roof on and exterior skin finished — before the weather changes.

Board members pressed construction staff on schedule and cost issues. Board discussion referenced prior assurances that the contractor targeted a July 26 completion date; the project team said they had recovered roughly three weeks of previously lost time and were focusing summer work on exterior skin and classroom wings. The construction team described milestones: full or near-full roof coverage in major areas, poured concrete roof decks approaching the end of cure, ongoing MEP rough-ins, and drywall work progressing on lower floors.

The board discussed multiple change-order line items. Officials said a pyritic-material haul-off (listed in backup as GC2627 and related items) was split into two parts because documentation and billing needed to be vetted; those items had been negotiated down after repeated review. The construction team described a set of related change orders (GC28, GC29, GC30, GC31 and an electrical change EC‑9) that were largely scope clarifications and value-engineering (VE) adjustments and said, when combined with credits, some of that package represented a net credit (approximately $1,516,000) in the contractor backups.

The board also questioned an electrical design change tied to the fire-alarm system. Construction staff said the district specified a redundant fire-alarm system so a single cable nick would not force a full building evacuation; because the specified redundant system removes the operational need for conduit-protected cable in some runs, the team omitted conduit in some places and saved about $30,000 compared with the conduit option that had appeared on earlier drawings.

Board members and staff confirmed that, if the change orders on the table were approved, the project would have used about $2,600,000 of the project contingency (roughly 80 percent of the contingency) with about $570,000 remaining. The construction team cautioned that earlier, dirt- and site-related work had consumed a large portion of contingency early in the project and that while the building work was “in the green” at the moment, they could not absolutely guarantee no future change orders.

Motion to approve the change orders for the new K–5 elementary school was moved by Mister Christiansen, seconded by Mister McGregor, and approved by the board 9-0.

The board asked staff to continue detailed backup review and to provide regular contingency and schedule updates at future meetings.