Davis arts center appears to be main target in project rebids
Yakima Herald-Republic
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Contractors vying for the Davis High School remodel project will be responding to a vastly pared down renovation of the performing arts center when the Yakima school board opens bids tonight at a special meeting.
This is the second time the project has gone out to bid, as the first round came in about 8.5 percent over the district?s budget of $97 million.
In light of those initial bids, the district worked with its architect to come up with a list of more than 70 items to be examined for possible deletion or modification, such as using more cost-effective materials and ditching the idea for a skybridge between sections of campus.
At a business meeting last month, school board members assured concerned parents and educators that the cuts would be spread evenly throughout campus. But according to contract plans and the district superintendent, that didn?t happen.
"I would say the majority of the cost savings most likely came from the performing arts center," superintendent Elaine Beraza said Monday, though she said they won?t know for sure until they open the bids tonight and go over them with the architect.
Beraza said she didn?t actually look at the plans before they went out for rebid because the specifications require more architectural knowledge to read thoroughly.
Big things that were left out in the rebid were plans to build a new foyer for the auditorium, raise the floor levels by about 4 feet, take out the balcony in the auditorium and add new bathrooms, she said.
One of the cuts that didn?t come from the performing arts center was the elimination of an additional hallway that was planned for the gymnasium.
The problem with the original performing arts redesign, Beraza said, was that it was a "fairly elaborate" plan.
"It was what I would call a dramatic change," she said. "It was really, very, very extensive."
With the new bid, she said, "There will be improvements to the performing arts center. They won?t be that original design," and they won?t really know details until after seeing the final bids.
Davis orchestra director and former band director Scott Goranson, who has previously voiced concern over the performing arts taking the brunt of the cuts, says the new plans have eliminated basic accessibility and safety measures, based on his understanding of the specifications.
"It doesn?t address seating, doesn?t address plumbing issues, doesn?t address handicapped access to the performing arts area or bathrooms," Goranson said.
The raising of the floors wasn?t an extravagant aesthetic change, he said, but rather was sought to remove the need for students to carry heavy band and theater equipment up flights of stairs to reach street level or the auditorium. Currently, students have to use the stairs because there are no ramps or elevators.
Handicapped access is a big issue, too, he said, because the current bathrooms are located either in the basement or up on the balcony level, with no elevators.
"This new design, if they don?t invest more money into it, will be essentially a two-month makeover over the summer of what we have now," Goranson said. "What it comes down to is one department being singled out to make up the budget shortfall, when in an ideal situation, at least, that should be spread out across campus."
Beraza said that when the bids come back in, they?ll have a better idea of what they can do; if it turns out they?re under budget, they?ll start looking at some of the items that were marked as "alternates" in the rebid, to see if they can add them back in.
"There are already people" ? the architects ? "thinking about things they could do to make the performing arts area a better facility, and improve it" after the bids come back, Beraza said.
But the district is being more cautious this time around about making promises, "because the worst thing right now, I believe, that could happen is if you have another round of disappointments," she said.
The Davis renovation is part of a 20-year, $114 million bond package passed in 2009 to rebuild Eisenhower High School and renovate Davis and Stanton Academy. The district is more than a year into its Ike rebuild, and the new Stanton building opened at the start of classes this fall.
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