WHEELING - A project to add classroom space to Elm Grove Elementary School is going to cost nearly $4.8 million - or about $2.3 million less than what was expected.
The Ohio County Board of Education this week approved a bid submitted by Coleanni Construction of Dillonvale to do the work for $4,806,000. Last year, the proposed project was projected to cost $7.1 million.
The cost is now less as a new geothermal heating system and a new roof already were placed at the school in recent years, and had been figured into the price.
The work at Elm Grove is mostly outside the scope of a $42.2 million bond passed by Ohio County voters in 2018 that was to provide for overall improvements at all Ohio County school facilities.
Steven Bieniek, business manager for Ohio County Schools, said 72.75% of the cost will come from money provided to Ohio County Schools by the SBA. The remainder will come from remaining bond money and the school district's permanent improvement fund.
The bid for the work at Elm Grove Elementary represents the last bid for the last project of all work happening in Ohio County School's facilities, according to Bieniek.
Last July, Sean Doyle, field representative for McKinley and Associates, told Ohio County Board of Educations members that as the engineering firm had worked on designs for planned renovations to buildings, they received word from the West Virginia Department of Education that enrollment at Elm Grove Elementary had increased by 30% in recent years.
The SBA told McKinley that any improvements at the school should be structured to accommodate for this.
The addition will entail construction of a 7,800 square-foot one-story building. It will be L-shape in construction, and will consist of eight new classrooms, explained David Crumm, director of operations for Ohio County Schools.
There also will be two small instruction rooms for Title I services, and a storage room added.
In the existing building, plans now call for three new restrooms to be added in the Pre-K and kindergarten areas, as well as the construction of two storage areas to be shared by adjacent classrooms.
Another title room would be added near the front entrance, and a security "man trap" would be constructed there.
A movable partition would be installed between the cafeteria and gym, as would new flooring throughout the building. Replacing the gym floor has been added to the project.
Work should begin sometime in late spring or late summer, according to Rick Jones, assistant superintendent of Ohio County Schools.