The Bond Has Passed! Now What?

Now that the $18.12 mm bond has passed, how will the Scarsdale School District begin the construction process? As usual, Assistant Superintendent Linda Purvis was one step ahead of the game at the December 8 Board of Education meeting where she outlined the district's next steps assuming the passage of the bond on December 11.

Here is the plan that she outlined:

-The district will formally appoint architects KG&D as the architects of record for the school construction projects.

-They will convene building level committees to make recommendations on the details of the design work. Principals will be asked to identify faculty members and parents to serve on these committees who will look at specific design problems and refine schematics.

The district will do a request for a proposal for construction management services. Once retained this company will act as the district's representatives and serve as a liaison between the administration and the construction vendors. They will provide independent cost estimates to be compared with those provided by the architects. They will develop construction timelines and benchmarks for the work which is expected to take from 15 to 20 months, will figure out how students will be managed during the construction process and when construction will need to be halted to accommodate testing. Last they will provide onsite construction supervision and problem-solving for issues that arise. Their fee will be a percentage of the total budget and has been figured into the projections.

The Board of Education will appoint a District Construction Committee comprised of the architects, construction managers, Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Director of Facilities, 2 or 3 members of the Board of Education, three community members with expertise in construction and possibly a parent representative. This committee will do technical work and will meet every 2-3 weeks, usually at 8 am, for 2 years.

To finance the initial stages of the project, Purvis and her team will investigate one-year financing needs and make a recommendation on raising the funds for the architects fees, construction management fees, pre-construction testing, bond issuance fees and to pay for any work that can begin in the summer of 2015. The administration will ask the board to do a bond anticipation note for up to 10% of the authorized bond amount which will eventually rolled into a long term financing plan.

Two projects will be funded through outside sources:

The Madoff family will donate $300,000 in memory of their son Tyler to purchase the equipment for the new fitness center.

The Scarsdale Schools foundation will donate $2,600,000 for the creation of the Design Lab in the space now occupied by the Auto Shop at the high school.

To learn more, watch Purvis on video on demand on the Scarsdale School website here: