Officials with the Bainbridge Island School Distict remained tight-lipped this week about the financial turmoil engulfing the construction of the new Blakely Elementary School.
The Bainbridge Island School Board will hold a special meeting on Thursday to address the increased construction costs for the new school that will replace Captain Johnston Blakely Elementary School.
In agenda materials for this week’s board meeting, district officials have indicated that cost estimates have gone beyond earlier figures for what the new school will cost to build, and the higher costs have led consultants and district officials to revise the design of the new Blakely Elementary
But the scope of those new estimates, and how much they have climbed, remain a closely guarded secret by district officials.
District officials and school board members contacted this week by the Review have refused to share those new cost estimates, however, and have also declined to answer questions about the timeline of when officials became aware of the newest estimates for Blakely.
Those questions remain hanging as voters cast ballots this week for two more funding requests by the Bainbridge Island School District. Island voters will decide the fate of Proposition 1, a property tax levy for educational programs and operations that totals $41.8 million over four years, and Proposition 2, a companion levy for new technology that will raise $8.8 million over four years, during the Special Election on Feb. 14.
Funding for the new Blakely was approved by voters in November 2015 as part of an $81.2 million bond package that will also pay for the new 100 Building at Bainbridge High.
District officials have known for some time that the earlier estimates for Blakely would change as the design process unfolded.
According to School Board Vice President Mev Hoberg, the school district was made aware of potential problems with the initial budget estimates as far back as last spring.
“Tamela [Van Winkle, the district’s executive director of Facilities, Operations and Capital Projects] has been warning us about this possibility since the architects came on board and started the educational specification (ed spec) process, where they have deep conversations with the teachers to discuss exactly what the program for Blakely consists of,” Hoberg said.
Even so, the gap between available funding from the November bond and how much is actually needed for the new Blakely didn’t come into full focus, publicly, until this week.
Van Winkle, in an agenda note for this Thursday’s meeting, said initial cost estimates for the school’s design by Robinson Company, a Seattle pre-construction consultant company that provides cost modeling and estimating, and FORMA Construction, had climbed “dramatically.”
“[Cost] escalation has dramatically impacted the cost of construction since 2015 when project estimates were originally established,” said Van Winkle in the agenda note.
Hoberg said the amount of the increase caught everyone off-guard.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the scale of the cost escalation that would occur — even the Robinson Company,” she said.
An early study by district consultants had put the project cost of a 65,150-square-foot facility at $45.5 million in 2018. The construction cost was estimated at $26.2 million, or $28 million if five additional classrooms were included to reduce class size.
Hoberg also said rising costs on capital projects were not unique to the Bainbridge Island School District.
“If you talk to the fire district and the library, both of which have capital construction projects in the works, you’ll see that they have also been hit hard by higher escalation costs than anticipated,” Hoberg said.
Board members will get a presentation at this week’s special meeting on the higher estimates, as well as budget changes that will be necessary to get the school built. Van Winkle has told the school board that adjustments will be needed in the district’s capital budget to cover the higher cost of construction.
Until then, it appears the new estimates will stay under wraps until they are officially presented to the school board. Board members Sheila Jakubik, Mike Spence, Lynn Smith, Tim Kinkead and District Superintendent Peter Bang-Knudsen were all contacted for comment, but none would provide the new figures on the changes to the cost estimates for the Blakely construction project.
Van Winkle said Monday the increased cost for Blakely is due to the current construction market.
“If you look at the Seattle skyline, you will see dozens and dozens and dozens of cranes, and those cranes are accessing the same materials, the same labor forces, the same subcontractors that we compete with, so there is a tremendous competition. Supply and demand drives escalation,” Van Winkle said.
