Bids for the planned renovation of DeKalb West School have come in more than $1.4 million higher than the school system’s architect initially estimated.
At Thursday night's regular meeting of the school board, Jason Morris of Kaatz, Binkley, Jones & Morris Architects, Inc. of Mount Juliet, announced the low bid for the project has come in at slightly more than  $4.8 million.
The firm’s original estimate for the addition of eight “tornado-safe” classrooms, new restrooms, a new secure front entrance, a new office, a clinic, a conference room, and a guidance and teacher work area, as well as a kitchen renovation and a re-roof of the old portion of the school in Liberty was $3.4 million.
J. Cumby Construction of Cookeville submitted the lowest bid of three bids to complete the project.
The base bid is $2,179,000 to complete the West School addition, $75,341 to purchase the roofing materials; $509,000  to re-roof the existing structure and $192,872 to purchase the roofing materials, $846,000 for the kitchen/cafeteria renovation and $12,866 to buy the roofing materials for that job.
The bid also includes $986,924 for the cost  of energy-saving renovations on all school buildings by Johnson Controls.
The school system was approved for  Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant funds totalling more than $1.5 million to build eight tornado safe rooms at DeKalb West School last summer.
The plan required a $600,000 local funding match (12.5 percent) to acquire the grant money.
The county commission approved a $3.4 million note last July to cover the grant match and roof repair work on other schools.
The note was to cover the local grant match for the safe rooms along with an $850,000 cafeteria and kitchen renovation at DeKalb West School as well as roofing projects at DeKalb West, DeKalb Middle and Smithville Elementary School.
“The project bid came in over budget,” Morris told the board. “We did the bid with a base bid and a couple of alternates. The alternates that we chose to put on there, one was to re-roof the existing building and the other was to add onto the kitchen-cafeteria and dining room.”
The news came to the chagrin of board members, who are already seeking ways to cut the school system’s budget in a tough economic year.
The architect suggested more than $1 million  in spending cuts to the project, including putting off the re-roof at DeKalb West, which would amount to  a savings of more than $7000,000, until more funds are available.
School officials, however, said that the nearly 20-year-old roof was in need of immediate repair, and that additional funds do not exist.
“What we're proposing to do at this point is to take the base bid from Cumby Construction with the kitchen cafeteria and not take the re-roof of the existing building,” Morris told the board.
“Pull that out of the project and then bid it separately at a different time. It could be in a month, it could be six months, whenever the cash-flow scenario works out to where you have the money to do that and then we can come back and re-bid it.
“You're still getting all the square footage of the plans. You're still getting the new kitchen. What you have seen on the plans will still be there. It's just that the new roof won't be there. You're still getting all the classrooms, science labs, FEMA corridor, generator, FEMA roof, windows, and new finished and ceiling tile in the kitchen,” he said.
Board Chairman Johnny Lattimore asked Morris if bidding the roofing job separately would save any money.
“If we pulled out the roofing project from this bid and bid the roofing project separate, do you think that would come in at less money?” Lattimore inquired.
“It could,” Morris replied, “You're probably going to have more people go after it because it's just a re-roofing, so it probably would be more competitive.”
The board took no action on the matter, electing to take some time to study the problem before accepting the bid.
“I would like to sit down with Mr. Morris and anyone else who wants to and look at this a little bit more,” said Director  of Schools Mark Willoughby. “I really don't want to have to re-bid this, because I'm afraid if we re-bid this, it might be higher. But I do want to get a better understanding,” Willoughby said.
“We're going to have another special-called meeting of the budget,” Lattimore informed the assembly. “We've been asked by the county commission to make some other reductions. We need to do that ASAP. We can come back to this matter then.
“In the meantime, that would give Mr. Willoughby time to go speak to the county executive and county commission to let them know what is going on,” Lattimore suggested.