New expansion plans discussed by Jackson Heights B.O.E.

Changes in plans for classroom expansions in the Jackson Heights school district may keep the expansion project within the $5 million price range that members of the USD 335 Board of Education have set as a goal, but there are still some adjustments to make before the plan goes out to district patrons for review.

During the school board’s regular monthly meeting on Monday at Jackson Heights High School, Superintendent Jim Howard presented board members with an updated version of the expansion plan, which now adds classrooms to both the middle and high school building and the elementary school building but does not connect the two apart from a “covered walk” between the proposed classroom expansions at each school.

The new plans, as drawn by representatives of Civium Architecture and Planning of Topeka, include an elementary addition that includes two classrooms and a music room, as well as options for a middle and high school expansion that include either five classrooms and an art room or six classrooms. The “covered walk,” board members noted, would cover the six-foot difference in grade between the two buildings.

Howard presented board members with Civium’s “probable construction cost” estimates, which ranged from $1,392,300 to $1,692,180 for the elementary addition, from $2,402,725 to $2,920,235 for the middle and high school addition with five classrooms and an art room and from $1,939,600 to $2,357,360 for the middle and high school addition with six classrooms, all with square-foot costs ranging from $325 to $395.

“Even at the highest estimate for both buildings, it will be well within the range we talked about,” Howard told board members, referring to the $5 million goal set by board members at the beginning of discussion about building classroom expansions to handle an increase in student population due to Wetmore area students joining the Jackson Heights district two years ago.

Board member Neal Keeler encouraged fellow board members that whatever the end cost of the expansions is determined to be, there would still be an extra 10 percent for contractor contingencies and an extra seven percent for architect fees.

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