Whew.
After a half-year of market tumult, where rising construction prices appeared to threaten the viability of its long-planned expansion, the Jefferson High School Board of Trustees on Feb. 28 approved a package of bids that will allow it to pursue most, but not all, of its original design.
The board’s vote cleared the way for construction to start on April 3, pending weather. The expansion is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 30, 2024, in time for the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
Low bids on 27 project components that the board had deemed essential — from demolition and construction of a foundation to structural steel and erection to flooring and roofing — came in at a total of $9.1 million, according to Dick Anderson Construction, Inc., the general contractor.
Including built-in contingency, overhead, and profit, the total for those activities was $10.3 million. That was well below what trustees had feared last July, when Dick Anderson and SMA Architects, the Helena firm that’s designing the new building, reported that anticipated costs had soared well beyond the original budget — and even above the $14.5 million raised by the school’s 2021 bond issue.
The trustees responded at the time by taking some project elements, like an all-weather track and a new football practice field, off the table; and by making others, such as new classrooms for the school’s career and technical education (CTE) programs, contingent on costs for higher-priority building activities.
Now, say school officials, the CTE classrooms — estimated to cost $1.3 million — are back in the budget. That work and a few other elements, such as a $64,404 video surveillance system, that had been withheld pending bids on the core elements, will bring the total guaranteed project cost to $12,031,692, according to Dick Anderson’s bid cost summary. (The improved track and football practice field, among other things, are still outside the project’s scope.)
That outcome brought “a collective sigh of relief,” said Erik Wilkerson, who has presided over the pre-construction process since becoming superintendent last July. “We were hoping for good things, but until you actually get the bids, you’re not sure.”
The expansion is becoming more pressing as the high school’s student population grows. Wilkerson noted that pre-registrations indicate that next fall’s freshman class could hit 90 students; this year’s senior class, he said, is just 50.
Cami Robson, the board chair, noted that the vote capped a rocky seven months for the trustees, who have had to navigate unusual market volatility. “We had some tough meetings where we heard things we didn’t want to hear. It’s good to come out with this result.”
Dick Anderson reported it received a total of 55 bids for the 27 project components. Of the winning bids, 17 came from companies based in Helena, East Helena, Butte or Jefferson County. Among those, Gruber Excavating of East Helena was selected to do sitework, excavation, backfill, utilities, and site concrete for a bid price of $447,119. Montana City Plumbing and Heating was awarded the plumbing package for a bid of $1,086,180.
Merit Mechanical of Helena was selected to do heating, ventilation, and air conditioning for the new building, for a bid price of $1,616,624. Helena-based 406 Electric was awarded the contract for electrical, communications, and electronic safety and security for $1,330,568.
Dick Anderson itself was awarded six of the packages, mostly for smaller elements for which there were no other bidders.
Separately, the board approved a $26,398 contract with Pioneer Technical Services to provide quality control testing and inspection services; $40,312 to Tri-County Mechanical & Electrical for ventilation upgrades; and $23,970 to Northwest Technical Services for commissioning of HVAC systems. Those three activities fall outside the scope of the core bond-funded project.
