Cheltenham SD facilities committee: bids come in far below estimates for Cedar Brook and Glenside; stadium turf work underway
Summary
At a Facilities Committee meeting, staff reported Cedar Brook and Glenside construction bids well under earlier estimates, which could reduce borrowing; committee members pressed for explanations of estimator variances and received updates on stadium progress, a repaired elementary court and permitting.
Cheltenham SD facilities staff told the Facilities Committee that bids for two planned additions — Cedar Brook and Glenside — came in substantially lower than earlier estimates, potentially reducing the district's borrowing needs. The committee also heard an update on stadium construction and a completed safety repair at Winco Elementary.
A facilities staff member summarized the district's three strategic-plan projects — the stadium, the Cedar Brook addition and the Glenside addition — and contrasted original estimates with final bid results. On Cedar Brook the staff member said the estimated construction budget had risen during design to about $23.8 million but "we were pleasantly surprised when we opened the ... bids came back at 13,700,000.0." He added that the estimate increase had been driven in part by an engineering recommendation for additional steel to address mismatched roof conditions.
The staff member told the committee that the district had planned for a roughly $30 million bond issue ("roughly $2,300,000 in debt service annually") and that lower bids on one or both projects could reduce the district's annual debt-service burden. For example, he said pursuing both projects at an estimated combined $25 million would lower additional debt service to about $1.9 million, and that one of the lower scenarios would be closer to $1.3 million in added annual debt service.
Committee members pressed staff for detail about why some line-item estimates — electrical work was cited as an example — were meaningfully higher than the bids that contractors submitted. A member asked whether the estimator could explain the discrepancy; staff said the estimator had been at another meeting and that he would provide the estimator's analysis and could appear at the next meeting to answer follow-up questions.
The staff member described the district's procurement approach: bidding Cedar Brook and Glenside separately and also offering a consolidated bid option so contractors could propose combined pricing if they wished. When asked about minority- and women-owned business (M/WBE) participation, staff said there had been M/WBE responses among bidders but that none of the awarded contracts were to minority- or women-owned firms.
On Glenside, staff said the original estimate of about $7.7 million was revised to around $7.8 million (construction roughly $6 million) but that bids opened near $5 million, yielding a revised grand total near $6.8 million. The staff member estimated that a standalone Glenside project would add about $500,000 per year in debt service.
Separately, Mr. Turner reported progress on the stadium: crews were completing end-zone work and the district expected turf installation to begin this week. Turner said he is "still working with FMX to get them situated so that we can get a better understanding as to all our work orders and PMs" to improve maintenance tracking; FMX representatives were unable to attend the meeting due to scheduling conflicts.
Turner also showed photos of completed repairs at Winco Elementary where the basketball court was resurfaced after deterioration raised safety concerns about children falling into an adjacent area; staff indicated cost and photo documentation would be available and that "Josh can most likely go over all of these numbers for us."
On permitting, staff said the projects are in the permitting process and that Glenside is farther along than the stadium. Conservation-district approval for stormwater management has been completed and staff have requested—and said they received—permit forgiveness from the township "to the greatest extent possible." Staff set an aggressive construction timeline aiming for the projects to be substantially complete for the 2027 school year, with Cedar Brook intended to house sixth grade in fall 2027 and Glenside potentially finishing earlier.
Staff said they would provide the estimator's rationale for the line-item variances at a future meeting. The committee had no further questions and unanimously approved adjournment.
