Officials am to keep new high school on schedule

Local school officials say changes in procedures will help keep plans for a third high school on schedule.

Members of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen received a report Tuesday about an alternative bidding process for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ third high school.

Steve Scroggs, the city schools’ assistant superintendent for support services told aldermen that under the new process, the search for a contractor will be concurrent with the town’s review of the school’s conditional use permit.

Approval of the conditional use permit is required before construction can begin.

“It is very important to have the summer to start construction,” said board of education Chairwoman Lisa Stuckey.

The high school — which will be located on Rock Haven Road off Smith Level Road — is scheduled to open for the 2007-08 school year.

Scroggs said it is important to keep the project on schedule because the Orange County Board of Commissioners — who have to approve funding for the school — do not meet during the summer.

“While it may not be the death knell of (the process), it would mean we would have to have perfect weather for two-and-a-half years,” he said.

Though the aldermen were not required to vote on the change, Alderman Jackie Gist said she had no qualms with the district’s suggestion.

But she said she wanted to make it clear that support for the changes does not translate into support for the conditional use permit.

Aldermen delayed approving the permit last month, citing concerns about the number of parking spaces as one of their reasons for the postponement.

The district cut the number of spaces by 100 in response to the aldermen’s concerns — a response Scroggs said the aldermen will like.

“We clearly have made a substantial reduction in our parking,” he said.

He also said while Carrboro officials review the permit, district officials will start the bidding process, expected to begin in mid-March.

District officials will meet with commissioners in May, in hopes of resolving the budgetary concerns relating to the project.

Scroggs said that the first realistic cost estimate for the school was about $34.5 million. But he said he now expects the project to be over budget by about 20 percent.

“I can tell you right now we are going to be over budget. Everybody knows it,” he told the aldermen.

Scroggs said that since the district delayed opening its tenth elementary school until 2010, commissioners will be able to use funds allocated for its construction to cover the over-budget costs associated with the high school.

 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.