NEW SCHOOL DELAYED; CONTRACTOR BEING DOCKED FOR BLANCHARD

R.L. Persons Construction Co. began losing $300 per day Thursday for missing its Wednesday deadline to complete construction of Blanchard Elementary School.

The company must repay the Cape Girardeau School District for each day required for completion of the school under a contract clause regarding liquidated damages. The repayment schedule includes weekends.

"It's a legal term that means you were unable to get what was promised," said Board of Education president Dr. Ferrell Ervin. "Wednesday they should have been notified by the architect, Tom Holshouser, that it was the end of the contract."

The school being built at 1829 N. Sprigg near Bertling Street was originally scheduled to open in fall 1998, but delays in finalizing the design and funding caused school officials to postpone its opening one year.

A $3.4 million contract to build the school was awarded to R.L. Persons Construction in November 1998. All went well at first, but in February then-schools superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent announced the building was behind schedule and most likely would miss its June deadline. He projected the school would be completed about July 30.

Later, project manager Jim Baker said delays in acquiring structural steel and ordering the wrong kind of skylights had caused the project to fall even further behind schedule.

Bruce Peterson, field superintendent for R.L. Persons Construction, said progress is being made, and the company will continue to work evenings and weekends until the end of August when they expect to complete the building.

The Cape Girardeau School District is scheduled to begin classes Aug. 26.

"We're going to work some overtime trying to get it done," said Peterson, who became superintendent of the project near the end of March. "Even if it's not completed at the end of August, we'll have it to where they can get their stuff in while we're doing final touches."

Peterson said much of the exterior brick work is near completion, and the roof is finished. Blacktop for the driveways will be laid next week, and subcontractors will begin installing drywall in the building.

"We've been working a lot of overtime to get it to this stage, and I imagine in the future we and our subs will be working a lot more overtime to get this done," Peterson said. "We've made some good progress since I've been here."

Ervin said former assistant superintendent David Giles developed a contingency plan in case construction of the building was not completed when school started. School administrators will distribute letters detailing the contingency plan to parents of affected children next week, said Ervin.

The plan calls for temporarily putting Blanchard fifth- and sixth-graders at May Greene Elementary School, while students in kindergarten through fourth grade will attend Washington School. When Blanchard is completed, all classes will relocate to the new school, and May Greene and Washington schools will close as planned.

Ervin said the contingency plan was developed by school administrators and was not discussed formally by the school board.

"The eventual need for this plan was discussed as many as three months ago," Ervin said. "Several contingency plans were worked out by David Giles, and Dr. (Barbara) Kohlfeld was left to work it out (after Giles' retirement). It's been handled by the administration, not the board."

Ervin said the contingency plan will not be enacted if the building is completed prior to the start of school. If the plan is enacted, it will be a temporary measure until construction is finished, he said.

The opening of Blanchard school will not be delayed another year, Ervin said.

"If the building were completed and cleanup could have been completed as well, we should occupy this building as soon as we could," he said. "We definitely want to be in that building as soon as we can."