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The Final Bill Is In: $1 Million For Modular Classrooms At Bratt And Ernest Ward
October 13, 2009
The final bills are in for the addition of modular classrooms at Bratt Elementary and Ernest Ward Middle schools — $1,026,214. That bottom line is almost $43,000 over the school district’s original budget.
The modular units were installed at the two schools to handle growth, including an influx of students from the closure of Carver/Century K-8 School.
Bratt Elementary’s modular buildings included five classrooms with restrooms, five sinks and two closets at a total cost of $473,760. The modular buildings at Bratt were $33,753.69 more than originally budgeted due to several changes and additions approved during the summer, including: $13,992.97 for an additional covered sidewalk to the main building; permit fees for required inspections, $1,496.45; sod for erosion control, $2,130.87; additional concrete decking for building access, $2,333.10; engineering for required fire hydrants, $1,961.93; and $11,838.36 for fire hydrants required by the fire marshal.
Ernest Ward Middle received five classrooms, two closets, and one 24 by 36 foot restroom facility at a total cost of $552,454. That was $9,062 over the original budget. Additional costs at Ernest Ward included $13,362.31 for a covered canopy to the building; $1,749.83 for a sidewalk; $2,574.58 for sod; $1,484.70 for sitework for drainage; $1,961.93 for fire hydrant engineering; and $11,838.36 for fire hydrants required by the fire marshal. The costs were offset by a $25,286.36 credit for concrete, awnings and rails that were not installed.
The Escambia County School Board is expected to approve the final $1,026,214. payment to Williams-Scotsman, Inc. at their next meeting on October 20. The architect, school principals, project manager and project director have already signed off on the payments.
Comments
16 Responses to “The Final Bill Is In: $1 Million For Modular Classrooms At Bratt And Ernest Ward”
I dont understand why everybody is so against one million.. Bratt is the best school and has been a A school for many years vs. the others which have not. Now it was mentioned several blogs up and a second notation it took Carver 3 million to run, portables 1 million that is two million in taxes we dont have to worry about coming from our hard working checks what is so difficult…
DONT UNDERSTAND THE FUSS
Send them to northview and save $1 million dollars?
Carver cost 3 million a year to run (operations). That is why they shut it down. No agenda, they could service the students at Bratt and Ernest Ward for a fraction of Carvers yearly budget.
1 million for modular buildings at Bratt and Ernest Ward. They could’ve taken only a fraction of that, just say even only $100,000 to hire a few remedial, resource or reading teachers to help bring Carver’s grade up, ultimately keeping it open. I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Yet, when those in higher positions have their personal agendas set and want to waste money in the areas that they have preference for, they find the money to do so, yet when Carver school was shutting down, they had no other option, no money, no way to help, no”nothing”..according to them (the pitiful officials, that is)
How long are the modulars going to last? Are there any information on the life of these?
From my understanding these modulars are built out of steel and concrete, and meet the same standards as a new building. The building cost less than $100.00 per foot, that means they are cheaper than conventional construction.
I think the school district owns all of that land from Ernest Ward behind the bus garage and all the way over to the ruritan bldg. Plenty of space there too!
Yellar Hammer; actually at Ernest Ward they could take down that hideous blue gym the old ag building and all the paving/junk between and build facing the secondary road since it would be safer to entry and exit from it than out on 97.
Escambia County School system is going to have to build a new middle school soon so why don’t they build a new middle school in the back of Ernest Ward. they could do this and demo the old school and build new sports fields where the old school is. This would cost less than new land purchase, possibly the new sports fields cost would wash from the saving of existing land use.
For those people that are complaining of the cost of the new portable rooms its looks like they still don’t know how far a dollar goes.
REGARDING:
“The costs were offset by a $25,286.36 credit for concrete, awnings and rails that were not installed.”
Does this mean they thought they needed them but didn’t or does it mean they needed them but did not install them anyway?
David seeking understanding
I must say I’m sorry to see any school have to resort to prefab classrooms. It is not the prefab technology that is at issue, for it does save on construction cost, but on the design itself. Every time I see these modular buildings I remember a comment by a Florida Architect talking about the quality of our communities and how we built great school buildings during the depression but now they look more like juvenile detention centers. Two small windows and an antiseptic interior. Only thing missing at Bratt is the high chain link fence with the barb wire on top.
You would almost have to wonder how much of that is in permits since you have to have a permit or this and one for that!
I have no current ties to the schools, but if you could undertake a major construction project and be assured to have less than a 4.4% overrun on two different sites you would be happy. These types of major projects are very difficult to budget because of all of the variables that must be planned for and the presence of FL engineers ensure that there will be some changes.
Ripoff!!!!, This capital outlay is not directly comparable to operating Carver/Century. Since the money is being used on infrastructure, it can be booked in the Plant and Equipment area and expensed over approx. 10-15 years, if not more. In this case, money to operate C/C may have extended the school’s life 1 year, this outlay will accomodate students for 10-15 years.
One million dollars wouldn’t even come close to keeping Carver/Century open. The operating budget was in excess of three million last year and now those students attend the best schools in the district. So saving two million is a DEAL!
$1 million for portable classrooms? That million could have kept Carver/Century open. What waste!
The modulars really are nice, but $1 million seems like we could have built a real building at both schools.