The DeKalb County Commission was presented with plans last week for a proposed new 800-student Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school to replace the current Smithville Elementary School. On Thursday, October 27, the County Commission, Board of Education, County Mayor, Director of Schools, and Upland Design Group of Crossville, the architect of the project, was held a work session at the County Complex where the plans were revealed.
During the meeting renderings, schematic site, and a floor plan were showed what Smithville Elementary School could look like. Upland Design representatives were on hand to answer any questions from the commissioners.
The DeKalb Board of Education has approved the plan, but the County Commission will decide whether to fund the project. County Mayor Adcock said he has asked the CTAS County Government Consultant, Ben Rodgers, to conduct a debt study for the county before action is taken.
“I want him (Rodgers) to do this study to give us what our options are and what resources we could use to fund something like this. They (CTAS) need somewhat of a firm number to do a debt study, so I have asked them to do a debt study for $50 million. We would definitely have to find some revenue source to fund it,” said Adcock.
With building cost fluctuating, the current estimated cost to build the new school is $46,199,875. “The building construction cost has been based on current industry standards school construction in today’s economic market and recently bid school projects. We have used Park View Elementary in Putnam County and Jasper Middle School in Marion County as references to determine the estimated cost. Both have recently bid in the last 60 days,” said Brian Templeton, Architect and Firm Principal of Upland Design Group.
“We started planning for the project in 2018 prior to COVID and since then construction costs have really been volatile and it’s been a hard thing to pin down but the way we get ideas about costs is we look at other projects and we gauge the cost per square foot of a school.”
“At the end of June and early July Putnam County bid a new school project and it just started construction. That project bid roughly $330 per square foot and a couple of weeks later we got some information on a middle school project in Marion County that had bid around $340 per square foot but those projects had pretty expensive sites so talking to the contractors there and trying to determine what the cost of building was versus site we were able to come up with what we are presenting to you right here for this project (Smithville Elementary) of about $325 per square foot for the building and that would include site work. This is what we think the project would cost if we bid it today.”
“Just to put that into perspective, the contractors we have spoken with and the construction prices we have seen indicate that over the last 18 months there has been a little over a one percent increase per month in inflation in the construction industry. A couple of years ago it was 2% a year. When we first started talking about this a few years ago it was about $200 per square foot. This is the best cost information we have at this time. That is not to say that it could not change, but there is no sign right now of the commercial market taking a dive,” said Templeton.
When asked how long it would take to build a new elementary school, Templeton said about three years. The project budget estimate as presented by Upland Design Group is as follows:
· Building & Sitework 124,207 square feet x $325 per square foot: $40,367,275.
· Additional bus and car drives to connect the two schools (New SES and Northside Elementary)- 10,000 square yards $550,000
· Survey-$29,600
· Additional Subsurface Investigation- $10,000
· Construction Testing- $125,000
· Construction Contingency- $1,000,000
· Architectural & Engineering Fees- $2,045,000
· Final Printing: $3,000
· Fire Marshal Review Fee: $70,000
· Loose Furniture/IT & AV Equipment: $2,000,000
· Playground: Not Included
Total Estimated Project Cost: $46,199,875
Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said he thought the workshop was productive. “We just wanted to get the school plan out there for everybody to see because we are all going to have to work together to get this project going in the right direction. I would like to see us get started on the project whenever they (county) get their debt study done but there are a lot of steps to do. This is just a preliminary sketch of the building, and we still have to do some more surveys, permit work and things of that nature. We just wanted to introduce the plan to them (commissioners) and let them see what we would like to see going forward. It’s the first step of many,” said Director Cripps.
The current Smithville Elementary School building was originally built in 1958, and is now 70,557 square feet in size, with an enrollment of 581 students. A facilities study by Upland Design Group concluded in 2017 that the school, which has mold and other concerns, should be replaced and repurposed for other uses.
More than two years ago the school board voted to allocate funds from its own budget to purchase 24.5 acres of property on North Congress Boulevard adjacent to Northside Elementary School for construction of a new Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school. The price paid was $18,000 per acre for a total of $441,000.
According to Upland Design Group, the proposed new Pre-K to 2 Smithville Elementary School would be 124,207 square feet in size and would be designed to accommodate 800 students with room for future expansion to house up to 300 additional students (1,100) total.
