The ongoing renovation of Bethel Park’s Independence Middle School will cost a lot more than anticipated.

The school has been under construction for about a year. The project, which had an original estimate of $42 million, was split into two phases, with construction spread over two to three years.

The bulk of the work on the first phase, to renovate the main office and classrooms on the first floor, is nearly complete. District officials were hoping to start work on the next phase this summer, but they may need to scale back the project or split it into another phase after bids came in about 30% over budget.

Several representatives from SiteLogIQ, the school district’s project manager, discussed the news at the school board committee meeting in January.

“We are dealing with the most difficult time to be a design builder, as it relates to hyperinflation and the supply chain issues that we’ve been up against,” said Mike Arnold, project executive for SiteLogIQ.

In the second phase of the project, the middle school’s second floor was set to be renovated, as well as the cafeteria, auditorium, locker rooms and other areas. However, the bids for that part of the project came in at $31.5 million, well above the $24.2 million that was budgeted. The school board could opt to rebid a scaled-back version of the project and set aside work on the auditorium, music hallway and locker rooms for a third phase that will be tackled later.

The project is part of an ambitious plan to consolidate buildings at the elementary and middle school levels from seven schools into two schools. The district currently has five smaller neighborhood elementary schools and two middle schools, one that houses fifth and sixth grades, Neil Armstrong, and another for seventh and eighth grades, Independence.

The work at Independence will allow the school to accept more students by adding a sixth-grade wing. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade will go to a new elementary school that will be constructed at the site of Neil Armstrong Middle School. The five elementary schools will then close, as will Neil Armstrong.

“It’s important to also remember that this is an outcome of the strategic planning process that we went through over the last couple of years,” Barry Christenson, Bethel Park School Board president, said at a facilities meeting last month.

The new elementary center is the largest part of the district’s long-term facilities plan. The three-story building will house all students from kindergarten through fifth grade and will cost an estimated $95 million.

District officials hope the large elementary school will provide better consistency across all primary grades, both in terms of class sizes and curriculum. The building will also allow the district to begin offering all-day kindergarten.

The elementary school project is supposed to go to bid in late spring. Construction could begin this summer, and the building should be finished by the start of the 2025-26 school year.

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