School system reviews high school construction cost
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

Chesterfield County Public Schools is reviewing the construction costs for the Clover Hill replacement high school, but any change appears unlikely unless the school's opening, scheduled for the fall of 2010, is delayed a year.

Chesterfield Board Chairman Kelly Miller and County Administrator Lane Ramsey asked Superintendent Marcus Newsome to review school program and design standards because of the rapidly escalating costs. Using the same design as Cosby High School, the replacement high school on Genito Road at Route 288 was estimated to cost $55 million in 2003 and was approved overwhelmingly by the voters in a 2004 bond referendum. As first reported by this newspaper, the current estimate is $92 million.

Where the additional funding needed to build the replacement school will come from hasn't been decided, but one county source said it won't come from the county government. That would appear to leave only other school construction funding or the school system's operating budget between now and 2010 as potential funding options.

Miller and Ramsey questioned if each high school needs to have its own football stadium and basketball facility. A football stadium alone costs about $5 million and is used for five home games each year plus soccer and field hockey.

Newsome expressed concern that some parents would be bitterly opposed to not having their own stadium and having to share facilities with another high school. "I would go out on a limb if I knew the school board and board of supervisors would support me," he told them.

"The school board doesn't want to do anything that would delay the opening," Newsome added.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Kathy Kitchen said some design features - use of natural light and heating and air conditioning - could be reduced, but that would require hiring an outside architectural firm, meaning a delay in the opening and higher design costs. Chesterfield's Budget and Management Director Allan Carmody said a delay would probably mean 10 percent higher costs due to inflation.

According to Kitchen, "100 percent of the cost is the construction market and meeting higher building code standards." The actual cost for building Cosby High School - including $5 million for the road network - was $59.7 million.

"The construction costs have gone up eight percent, 16 percent, 21 percent and 10 percent [respectively] in the past years," she said. Much of the increases are being driven by the demand for steel, concrete and fuel in China, India and New Orleans, but those are statewide estimates, and central Virginia could fare better. She has hopes the replacement high school will cost $80-85 million.

"I'm hearing from a lot of people who think 80 percent more and $92 million is too much," said Miller. "We have to be ready to give the public the best answer we can."

The replacement high school is scheduled to go to bid this summer. Kitchen stressed that county schools are built well to "last 50 years."