BOARD APPROVES BUILDING CHANGES

JACKSON -- The Jackson Board of Education approved a change order Thursday night that clears the way for contractors to begin work on a bigger and better South Elementary School than was previously designed.

The original design for the school included 18 elementary classrooms grades kindergarten through four, as well as a computer lab, oversized gymnasium, and special services room for gifted and special education classes. The building will also have designated areas for a Parents as Teachers program and early education classes.

The change order adds six classrooms to the original design at a cost of $313,668 over the original bid. Penzel Construction Company Inc. won the original contract after board members voted to accept the company's low bid of $3,678,000.

The change will mean a fourth classroom will be built for each grade level at the school. Administrators recommended the additional classrooms be built because the district has experienced expanding growth patterns in recent years.

"It's my opinion that we'll never see a better price per square footage for the amount of space we'll be receiving," said Superintendent Dr. Howard Jones. "I feel like we have an excellent proposal for putting in the additional space that will help us with the district's growth in the future."

Jones said the meeting was held five days before a regularly scheduled meeting so that contractors could begin work on the school as early as possible. Work could begin within a week, he said, and every day will be needed to complete the building before the beginning of school next August.

"We're trying to move on the fast track so contractors could get started as quickly as possible," he said. "We could see them out working within the next week or two."

South Elementary School is the last of three new facilities being built in the district financed by a $7.8 million bond issue passed last year. Work continues on a Jackson High School math and science building. Additions to North Elementary School recently were completed.

During the Sept. 9 meeting board members authorized Jones to look into the legalities of recoding some fees previously deducted from money generated by the bond issue so that the deductions are taken from the district's general revenue fund instead.

Jones said he was assured by the district's lawyer and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education lawyers that recoding specialized fees so that deductions were made from district balances rather than bond issue monies was a bookkeeping change that is completely legal. The recoding will allow funds generated by the bond issue to finance the change order.

"We'll have to be much more conservative with our capital projects for the next couple of years, but I feel like it's a good trade off for the amount of extra space we're getting," he said. "It's like a comfort zone. It's nice to have healthy balances, but on the other hand, it's not at all comfortable to overfill rooms with bunches of kids."