The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The new Sisters High School will come in just under the $21 million budget set by the school board.

Kirby Nagelhout agreed on Monday, April 22, to a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) of $17,997,265 for the project. The district also has just under $3 million in "owners costs" such as professional fees, systems development charges, studies and inspections.

The price guarantee means that if bids come in higher than expected, the contractor still must meet the GMP.

"If he goes over that price, he's got to eat it, as the contractor," said schools superintendent Steve Swisher.

The district hopes that actual bids come in lower than the GMP, which would allow the school board to add back in items that were cut to get under budget.

The board spent nearly five hours on Monday working line-by-line through a list of options and "value engineering" items to cut nearly $500,000 from the project.

Major savings were made by changing from pyramid-shaped skylights to flat skylights (about $78,000); eliminating some extra acoustical panels in the auditorium (about $55,000); deleting a rock climbing wall (about $46,000) and a host of other changes.

According to Nagelhout and architect Scott Steele, complete plans for the high school should be finished by mid-May and the project should be bid out by mid-June.

At that point, the board should know how much savings has been made and can begin adding features back.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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