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William Penn SD committee reviews Ninth Grade Academy change orders; district says budget covers wage and abatement costs
Summary
The district’s construction committee discussed prevailing-wage increases, an $88,410 reallocation for abatement, a $22,382.05 HVAC air-purification add-on and a $2.16 million contingency balance; staff said federal DOE grant reimbursement applies and motions will be forwarded to the full board.
The William Penn School District construction committee reviewed change orders for the Ninth Grade Academy project on matters staff said are already covered in the current budget and eligible for DOE grant reimbursement.
Committee member Mr. Deans told the panel the change orders respond in part to a state prevailing-wage increase that took effect after the project’s RFP award but before contract ratification. "This is the total amount of the wage increase across all the respective trades," Deans said, clarifying that the example $71,000 figure represents the total added wage cost over the life of the contract rather than an annual salary increase for a single worker.
Deans also described work to address environmental hazards in the older building. He said the district has an environmental line of $300,000 and that staff will reallocate $88,410 of that sum to the general-contractor (GC) line so the GC will manage abatement. "Our GC is going to handle the abatement work of this project," Deans said, noting the change is a budget reallocation rather than a net new appropriation.
On HVAC work, Deans said the project must add bipolar ionization — an air-purification technology tied to the DOE grant requirements — and identified a change-order cost of $22,382.05 to install it. He said construction management and the mechanical engineer negotiated the amount down from a much higher estimate.
Deans reported the project’s remaining contingency is $2,164,384 and said the figure is a live number that will be updated monthly to reflect savings and field-driven expenses. He said staff will continue to supply monthly contingency reports so the committee can track adjustments.
At the close of the presentation, Deans listed motions staff will ask the committee to forward to the full board, including approving prevailing-wage change orders, the environmental reallocation, and the bipolar-ionization addition. No votes were recorded in the transcript; staff indicated the matters will be presented for formal approval at the larger board meeting.
What’s next: Staff will present the full and final budgets and the listed motions to the full board at a future business meeting; Deans said monthly contingency updates will be provided to the committee.
