Bennington Public Schools on Monday approved a guaranteed maximum price of $98,431,752 for the district's second high school and authorized the superintendent to execute related documents.

Superintendent reported the figure during a presentation on the construction manager-at-risk contract and said the GMP was the same amount the district had presented during the bond campaign once an anticipated $767,682 in energy-efficiency credits tied to a geothermal well field are applied. "This number that you're seeing here is the exact same number as what we told the public throughout the bond campaign of what the construction costs were going to be," the superintendent said.

Under the construction manager-at-risk arrangement, the contractor (Hausman) will provide cost estimates and manage subcontractors; the GMP sets a cap so the contractor is responsible for overages if bids exceed the cap and the district receives any underrun funds back.

Board members asked for assurances that the district could deliver the project within the stated budget. The superintendent said the district and the project team (DLR and Hausman) have worked together through design and constructability reviews to arrive at the GMP. "A lot of work with DLR, a lot of work with Hausman," he said, adding the collaborative process was an advantage of the CMAR approach.

District materials presented the GMP as part of an all-in project cost the superintendent listed as $124,645,829 for the full project scope. The board approved the GMP by unanimous roll call: Jeremy, Tim, Joe, Steve and Allison voted yes.

The board's approval authorizes the superintendent to execute all documents needed to finalize the GMP; public materials and staff remarks indicated the district expects some offsetting energy-efficiency credits but said those credits must be realized after construction and so are not reflected as an immediate reduction to the GMP itself.

What happens next: with a GMP approved, the district moves into the procurement phase where bids and subcontractor pricing will be finalized against that cap. The board noted the district will monitor costs as the project proceeds.