Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 Board of Education unanimously approved an $80.5 million bid package for Project 2 last week.
Project 2 covers the demolition and reconstruction of the southeast portion of the school and will include a new swimming pool, third floor gym, dance studio and other improvements. The entire project is projected to cost nearly $102 million.
Because the base bid came in at more than $1.3 million under budget, the school board decided to add five alternate enhancements that had been taken out of the project to cut costs. The five enhancements are expected to cost more than $1.2 million, which means the project is now $75,967 less than the original budget.
The five enhancements approved are a so-called communication stairway that will be in the middle of the reconstructed wing and lead to the second floor where the pool balcony is, transforming the existing West Pool locker room into a trainer’s room; using epoxy flooring for the deck of the new pool, the pool area, and pool locker rooms; upgrading the roof of the new section to PVC roofing materials; and installing a motorized partition in the new dance studio.
The communication stairway, which will cost $457,973, was the most expensive addition approved by the school board.
Board Vice-president Fred Arkin had some misgivings about the additional stairway and board member Jonathan Livingston voiced concerns about some of the epoxy flooring, but ultimately both voted in favor of the entire bid package when it became clear the majority of the school board supported adding all the recommended alternates.
Board member Graham Brisben noted that all the alternates were part of the original plans.
“This menu of options aren’t new bells and whistles that we’re deciding to add in,” Brisben said.
Board member Tim Brandhorst said that he believed that the communication stairway will be used by students and will also lead to an enhanced public experience of the new space.
“I trust the administration and their assessments,” Brandhorst said adding that he didn’t think the board was in a position to second-guess the administration about this.
But Brandhorst said that fear of making a mistake was the biggest factor in his decision to support the construction of the additional stairway.
“It’s fear of making the wrong decision, honestly,” Brandhorst said. “And for me I would rather make the investment and maybe have a somewhat lightly used staircase than not make the investment now and … two years from now we walk in and we look at the stairwell in one corner and the stairwell in the other corner and we say to ourselves ‘oh my God, we should have done the staircase. We really made a mistake.’ Because this is one we can’t get back. Either we get it right now or we don’t get it right.”