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Budget Committee approves $6 million interim appropriation for Central Middle School amid contingency erosion
Summary
The BET Budget Committee approved a $6.0 million interim appropriation to cover contingency shortfalls and an unforeseen fire suppression upgrade at the Central Middle School project; the committee also approved a corresponding bonding resolution.
The Board of Estimate & Taxation (BET) Budget Committee on May 12 approved a $6,000,000 interim appropriation for the Central Middle School replacement project to cover contingency erosion and newly discovered fire-suppression costs.
Project representatives — Joe Rossetti, chair of the CMS Building Committee, and consultants from JLL — and Ben Branyan, chief administrative and financial officer for the Board of Education, told the committee the owner's contingency on the roughly $112 million project has been largely used to cover under-budgeted soft costs (including the Owner's Representative contract) and an unanticipated requirement for a fire pump house. Tyler Fairbairn reported municipal water pressure shortfalls necessitated construction of a fire pump house with two underground 10,000-gallon storage tanks, a work item estimated at about $2.4 million.
The appropriation request was described as covering roughly $3,054,643 in projected known costs, $1,320,265 in pending or negotiated items, $281,000 in additional exposures, and $1,625,000 in remaining owner's contingency. Committee members were told the main school building is targeted for substantial completion by Aug. 4, 2026, with occupancy by Aug. 24, 2026; demolition of the existing building is scheduled to begin July 7, and the pump house is projected to be complete by early October, which could require a temporary fire watch costing about $200,000.
Chair Laura Erickson said the bonding resolution for the interim appropriation conforms to past practice and noted the Debt and Fund Balance Policy Committee is discussing debt-maturity options that could affect future projects. The committee voted 4-0 to approve the BOE-7 interim appropriation and separately voted 4-0 to approve the FI-6 bonding resolution for the $6,000,000 appropriation.
Committee members requested JLL provide a detailed breakdown of Owner’s Representative contract costs ahead of the upcoming regular BET meeting and said conditions on the appropriation would be finalized prior to that meeting.
The Budget Committee scheduled no further votes on this item at the meeting; the appropriation and bonding resolution were forwarded as approved to subsequent BET proceedings.
