KLSD: Considerable construction work done over the summer

A kindergarten room at Meadow Pond Elementary School as it appeared before work began, and as it is now with ceiling and lighting upgrades. KG+D ARCHITECTS PHOTOS

By JEFF MORRIS 

With the new school year under way, the Katonah-Lewisboro Board of Education was presented at its recent meeting with a recap of the work that was accomplished during the summer on the district’s construction bond projects. 

A substantial portion of the work has been done, though two of the planned projects will have to be rebid.

“It was a busy summer,” Russell Davidson of KG+D Architects said at the Sept. 19 meeting. “Actually more got done than was anticipated. These projects were never supposed to get done in one summer.”

Davidson said all eight of the bond construction projects had received full approval from the New York State Education Department, and work had commenced or is already substantially complete on six of the eight projects. 

One project that is mostly completed is the new playground at John Jay Middle School, which replaced a little-used parking lot adjacent to the auditorium entrance.

Davidson said the playground was long planned even before the construction bond, but when the bond passed they were able to marry the plan to the window replacement part of the bond, in order to get aid for the playground. 

Completed, he said, were a new entrance to the auditorium, new inclusive playground equipment, a new rubber play surface, new plantings and pavers to the entrance, and an upgrade for the balance of windows not yet replaced. He said there is some more fencing to be installed but the project is otherwise complete.

Richard Markgraf, a KG+D associate, described work that was done at Increase Miller and Meadow Pond elementary schools. Both schools are getting security vestibules at their main entrances; that work is in progress at both. Upgrading of gym air handlers is complete at both schools.

At IMES, a major project is construction of a new classroom addition and the removal of modular classrooms. That work is progressing, with foundations poured and in place for the new addition. Renovations of the library and STREAM lab are also underway, with substantial work already done.

Wingspace B at Increase Miller Elementary School, shown in a “before” photo, and as it now appears after renovation.

KG+D ARCHITECTS PHOTOS

Already completed at IMES are renovations of the A, B and D wings, including HVAC work in those wings, and classroom toilet upgrades.

At MPES, renovations to five classrooms, including the art room, and wings A, B and C are complete, as are ceiling and lighting upgrades to the kindergarten rooms and classroom flooring upgrades. As at IMES, work is under way on renovations to the library and STREAM labs.

In terms of the budget, Davidson said they have faced a lot of stresses with inflation over the last few years, and they were “a little delayed” by the State Education Department approval process, but they work with user groups at each location to prioritize work, and the only work that is awarded is within one and a half percent of the budget, so “you’re on your budget.” 

Two of the planned projects have to be rebid. Davidson said the bids came in a little high, particularly for Katonah Elementary School.

“We’re looking at repackaging Katonah Elementary,” he said. “It’s a ground source heat pump project, and we had bundled the drilling of the wells in with the HVAC contract; we found out after we reviewed the bids that might not have been the best approach,” so they are going to split them apart. 

He noted KES appears to qualify for some grant money under the Inflation Reduction Act, “so if we can insert the grant requirements into the bid specs, we can greatly improve your chances of getting a larger grant.” 

He added that due to the timing of the state approval, not a lot was going to be accomplished over the summer, so it is not going to have much of an impact on when the project will be completed.

The bid for John Jay High School, Davidson said, came in slightly over budget, but there had also been “a little shift in thinking, so we’re tweaking the design of B building at this point to retain a few more self-contained classrooms that will still be flexible.”

That work will be rebid at the end of the year. 

“I think, frankly, that the construction economy is working a little bit in your favor on the rebids,” he said. “We’ll be bidding on both of those in mid-winter. We also felt that the results were a little bit related to bid timing, which was after a lot of contractors had their work all booked.” 

“Timing is everything,” Davidson said. “We’ll give it another try.”