Wilson School District gets progress report on Lincoln Park and Southern Middle School projects; board told bidding could start in May

Crabtree Rohrbach & Associates presented an update to the Wilson School District Board on the Lincoln Park Elementary and Southern Middle School construction projects, reporting that zoning variances and conditional township approvals are in hand while state water-quality permitting (MPDES/NPDES) remains in technical review.

The presentation by Mr. Dowdy, the architect representing Crabtree Rohrbach & Associates, laid out permitting status, a change in planned water service for Lincoln Park that the team said would eliminate the need for a fire pump, tank and pump house and reduce the district's prior allowance of about $750,000 for that work. "We were holding in our budget prior to that about $750,000 to do this pump and tank," Dowdy said, noting the district is seeking a willingness-to-serve letter from the Shillington Municipal Water Authority.

Why it matters: the MPDES technical review is the key remaining approval for both projects. Dowdy told the board the projects are within the expected review window but that Lincoln Park's review has taken longer than anticipated, creating schedule risk. He recommended the board authorize bidding for Southern Middle School and, later, Lincoln Park while accepting the permit risk and using alternates and contract provisions to manage cost and schedule uncertainty.

Estimates and tariffs: Dowdy presented bid-day estimates (pre-tariffs) and total-project ranges. For Lincoln Park he showed a bid-day estimate of roughly $30.1M and a total project pre-tariff range of about $35.6M to $39.3M; applying a 2% tariff premium would raise that range to about $36.1M to $39.9M. Southern Middle School's pre-tariff bid-day estimate was shown near $43M to $47.6M, with a total-project pre-tariff range of $50.6M to $55.9M; a 3% tariff premium would raise that to roughly $51.9M to $57.3M. Dowdy said the most-visible tariff impacts so far are on steel, aluminum and door hardware, and he characterized overall tariff-driven cost pressure at about 2% to 3% depending on project type.

Act 34 / PlanCon constraints: Dowdy reminded the board that Lincoln Park followed Pennsylvania's Act 34/PlanCon process; the district previously set the maximum building construction cost for that project at $28,105,264 in January. He explained bids must come within 8% of that maximum or the district would need to hold an additional Act 34-style hearing before entering contracts.

Alternates and risk-mitigation: The team proposed multiple deduct and additive alternates to preserve flexibility after bids come in. Examples include a contractor-assumed unclassified-construction alternate, wireless lockdown hardware (an additive alternate estimated at about $45,000 for Lincoln Park and a larger amount for Southern Middle School because of more doors), a 20-year EPDM roof deduct alternate, and options to defer graphics or ceiling features. Dowdy said Southern Middle School has more and higher-value alternates because it is a phased renovation project.

Clerk of the Works and staffing: Board members asked about hiring a Clerk of the Works for on-site oversight during phased construction. Dowdy and district staff said a Clerk of the Works would be a contracted service (not a district employee) retained for the duration of construction to provide additional daily oversight, time tickets and coordination, especially for the more complex phased Southern Middle School work.

Schedule recommendation: Dowdy proposed the following procurement timeline if the board approves moving to bid: release Southern Middle School to bid on or about May 6 (a five-week bid period), receive bids in early June, review in mid-June and vote on awards June 23 with a notice-to-proceed target of July 21, 2025. He proposed holding Lincoln Park bidding later (May 27 or after), citing remaining technical review items.

Board action and votes: The board voted unanimously (9-0) to approve operations consent items that included a corrected contract amount for Crabtree Rohrbach & Associates' construction documentation phase for Lincoln Park (a corrected not-to-exceed amount of $371,033) and other construction-related change orders and contracts listed on the operations agenda. The motion to approve operations items 13.1'13.12 was moved by Mr. Case and seconded by Mrs. Denny and carried 9-0.

What happens next: The administration will return on May 5 seeking formal authorization to release Southern Middle School to bid; district staff said they would proceed with bid documents even if the MPDES permit is not yet issued but will include contract language that allows delay of notice to proceed for up to 120 days for permit-related reasons.