New school expenses growing

Officials agreed to efforts designed to reduce the expected $41.5 project cost by about $3.5 million, most notably by deciding to hold off on construction of a campus wing designed to house five classrooms.

Board Vice President Audrey Ng acknowledged the difficulty of the decisions, noting the extensive outreach school officials have conducted to gather community support for the initial school design.

“It’s challenging to come back to the public and say ‘you know what? These things are more expensive than we expected, so we are going to have to trim things down,’” she said.

The cost-saving measures are invited through skyrocketing construction costs, as the project was initially budgeted at $30 million, according to a district report. The budget to redevelop the Charter Square shopping center into a school site jumped to $37 million last August, and grew even more expensive in recent months.

Ng attributed hikes in material and labor costs as the source of the district’s budget issues, noting the expenses have plagued all of the school system’s work financed with Measure X bond revenue.

“The costs of all our projects are increasing, that means the projects in San Mateo as well as Foster City,” she said.

The district is in the process of building new gyms at San Mateo middle schools, and the next phase of construction is slated to include development of a fourth Foster City elementary school at the corner of Shell and Beach Park boulevards. Officials have claimed the new campus is necessary to offset overcrowding, generated by ongoing enrollment growth.

Some of the overruns can be addressed through funds set aside to address cost hikes, said Ng, but the district’s coffers cannot accommodate the full scope of the most recent budget projection.

Small project amendments including changes to the air circulation systems, different materials and altered lighting systems, which can generate about $1 million in savings, according to the report.

But a bulk of the reductions likely will come from shrinking the immediate scope of the project, by electing to hold off on building a campus wing designed to house five classrooms. Such an amendment could save $2.5 million, according to the report.

Ng said officials still plan to build the wing, which could accommodate about 125 students. The district will wait until state bond money designed to help pay for school construction is available to move ahead with that phase of the project, said Ng.

“Eventually we will do that cluster of five classrooms, but we see that as something we will do once we get funding from the state,” she said.

The cost-cutting measures are the most recent in a series of hurdles officials have encountered in their pursuit of the Foster City school.

Foster City officials have also been at odds with educators over the potential traffic, parking and noise issues generated by the project, leading to a series of talks designed to address the concerns.

The discussions followed Foster City Councilman Herb Perez suing to block the campus development, claiming school officials subverted the open bid process when agreeing to purchase the shopping center and construct the school for $61 million. The lawsuit was settled as school officials agreed to consider the city’s concerns regarding construction.

Looking ahead, Ng said officials will continue to keep close tabs on the project budget. Costs will likely become more clear once construction bids come back, she said.

She noted the challenges for officials tied to the cost cutting, characterizing the decisions as painful, but said the district was left with little choice in the pursuit of breaking ground on a badly-needed campus.

“It’s unfortunate, but we have to balance our budget,” she said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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