‘Nobody’s happy about this’ : Board approves $341,000 in Gateway Middle School change orders

As renovations to Gateway Middle School continue well past the initially estimated completion date, more money is going toward the effort.

The school board on Nov. 21 voted to approve $341,793.70 in change orders, representing deviations from the original scope of the project, with the bulk of the added expense going to general contractor Liokareas Construction Co. Inc.

According to information presented in conjunction with the board meeting, the cumulative total of change orders exceeds $3.2 million, representing about 9% of the $34.7 million in contracts awarded to launch the project.

“I can assure the community that nobody’s happy about this. We are told repeatedly that this is not terribly unusual for a project of this size, that we are within the percentage of change orders that one would typically see,” Jack Bova, board president, said.

“It would be easy to simply vote no to this, but our solicitor would tell you that it would wind up in court, sooner rather than later, and it would drag out the process even further,” he explained. “I’d like to think we’ve learned great lessons, but unless we’re renovating another school soon, I don’t know what good they’re going to do us.”

At an October 2020 school board, consultant Axis Architecture presented a timeline for the construction phase at the middle school lasting through June 2023.

But when the board’s buildings and grounds committee met this month, the completion estimate stretched to the end of March 2024.

As such, plans call for the school to reopen for the start of the 2024-25 academic year. During the renovation project, students in fifth through eighth grade have been attending Moss Side Middle School, which will close with the transition of students and staff to the renovated building.

Guy Rossi, the district’s acting superintendent, said at the committee meeting that transition efforts can start during the last two months of the current school year, including opportunities for students to become acclimated with various facets of Gateway Middle School.

“We’ll have a structured orientation when it’s done in the spring,” he said, and opportunities for parents to visit will take place, as well. “We’ll have that scheduled throughout the summer, up through the first teacher day.”