CONSTRUCTION UPDATE  II

8-20-2018

Welcome back to the 2018/19 school year! It has been a very busy summer for our construction project.  Each year the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) revises the Ohio School Design Manual (OSDM) with valuable input from the design and construction community, school districts, and state agencies.  The result is a dynamic document committed to high quality school facilities that maintain flexibility and local control.  Working with our design and construction partners, we’ve worked to understand the OSDM and its summary of 2018 updates and program requirements.  In July, we brought together staff representatives to go through initial feedback on the program of requirements found in the OSDM.  Every program area in a school facility was reviewed to determine type, numbers, and square feet all driven by the projected number of students.  The goal of this first step goal is to have all needed program requirements incorporated into early design and not be over the state’s total allotted square footage for the building. 

Our goal is to have the POR (Program of Requirements) phase submitted to the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission for a first review by the end of August.  Next, our architect and engineers will enter into schematic design.  In this step, our architect and engineers determine project requirements and goals.  Study drawings will illustrate the basic concepts of design. 

We also went on field trips this summer to four recently constructed buildings in Fairfield, Huber Heights and Milford.  Walking these buildings and talking to the staff and administration of these school districts was extremely valuable to understand design strengths, weaknesses, and functionality. 

Our architect met with Jamie Morley from the Village of Waynesville to provide a preliminary package of our new transportation maintenance facility in order to meet village zoning requirements.  In anticipation of construction and outsiders associated with the project on our campus, we changed the campus parking.  Student drivers were moved to the front of the middle school.  The number one reason is to create separation between our students and construction.  The traffic was not perfect on the first day of school but we made some adjustments and arrival for the middle/high school this week has improved.  Our master plan incorporates new parking and traffic flow into it.  Construction on a campus like ours will have many challenges over the next three to four years; patience and cooperation will make each transitioning period successful. 

In July, the district and OFCC held an Eco-Charrette in order to identify focal areas of energy and environmental design.  OFCC requires that all of their projects be certified silver or higher.  Our goal is to be silver certified related to energy and indoor/outdoor environment; creating a healthier, more productive and energy efficient place for our students and staff to learn, work and play.

Also this summer we conducted boring soil samples for the area of the new bus maintenance facility.  The geotechnical report from the boring soil samples reveal the soil area for the actual bus maintenance facility is conducive for the proposed standing structure and the areas the district has “reclaimed” over the years using fill dirt will be appropriate for vehicle parking, traffic and green space. 

Project Schedule as of August 2018:

• Construction of new bus maintenance facility and demo of old bus facility during 2018/19 school year;

• PK-6 Building - Schematic design; design development and construction documents during 2018/19 school year;

• Bidding for PK-6 Building – Summer 2019;

• Construction of PK-6 - Starting Fall of 2019; construction throughout the 2019/20 and 2020/21 school years;

• New PK-6 building open and occupied by students and staff beginning 2021/22 school year;

• Fine Arts/Community Center is the last phase of the project after completion of new PK-6 and demolition of old building site; begin construction during 2021/22 school year.