The Perry Hill School Building Committee took the Valley Indy on a tour of the almost-completed school May 14.
The project is $1.5 million over budget, and about 95 percent complete. It is scheduled to open for 5th and 6th graders in Shelton this September.
OVER BUDGET
In 2006, voters approved spending $41.5 million to renovate the building “like new” and use it to help overcrowding at the elementary schools.
The state is expected to reimburse the city 42.5 percent of the budgeted costs.
Back in November 2009, the building committee knew those costs were climbing.
Several unexpected circumstances added to the bottom line.
- Bricks that were supposed to be cleaned and reused had to be replaced instead. $60,000 added to the project.
- Tunnels below the school allegedly developed a mold problem and had to be monitored and cleaned up. About $100,000 added.
- An existing underground storage tank sprung a leak and needed to be cleaned up. About $100,000 was added to the cost.
- Unexpected asbestos monitoring and clean-up was required. An additional $125,000 was added to the cost.
During the fall, the committee tried “value engineering” — that is, cutting costs in other places — to help make up the difference.
It didn’t work.
Now the school is $1.5 million over budget, the building committee chairman Sean Sullivan told the Board of Aldermen last week.
“There have been many budget problems,” Sullivan said, highlighting some of the items listed above.
SOME MONEY BACK
There has been some relief.
The committee received some extra money from the federal stimulus funds for a “green” cooling system installed at the school.
Last week, the Board of Aldermen approved transferring $750,000 from the city’s general surplus fund to the project — of which $176,000 came from federal stimulus funds specifically linked to the cooling system.
That cooling system is also slated to receive $91,000 in grants from United Illuminating Co. when the school opens.
THE TOUR
The school is set to be complete in July, and punch list items will be completed in August.
Students are scheduled to start school there in September.
Bob Shuby, the “clerk of the works,” or liaison between the building committee and general contractor KBE Construction, took the Valley Indy on a tour of the new building May 14.
Shuby went to school there when it was Shelton High School.
He now works “to make sure the town buys apples and gets apples,” Shuby said.
“I’m the eyes and the ears of the building committee,” Shuby said.
The school was first built in 1953, and had additions put on in 1958 and 1962.
The building is 185,000 square feet, and is three stories tall. Outside, there are two large playing fields that make up about 162,000 square feet.
The school sits on a large hill overlooking downtown and the Housatonic River.
SPECS
Here are some details about the new school:
- 48 classrooms, and several other learning spaces, such as art rooms and computer labs.
- Two gymnasiums
- Cafetorium, where students will eat lunch and where chairs can be brought in for performances on the stage.
- An administrative suite with offices for school leaders, guidance counselors and social workers.
- Teacher work rooms and conference rooms
- 162,000 square feet of playing fields
- Updated boiler room, where two new boilers take up less room than one of the school’s four boilers used to take up.
- New roof on the entire school
- An “evaporative chiller with ice storage” cooling system, that makes ice at night at off-peak energy prices and uses it to cool the school during the day. Water is piped by the ice, and then through the school, to cool it down.
