BY KARISSA MILLER

Skyrocketing material and construction costs have increased the estimated price tag for Weathers Creek High School to $177 million, forcing Iredell-Statesville Schools officials and Iredell County commissioners to make some difficult choices and answer tough questions.

In March 2020, Iredell County voters approved a one-cent property tax rate increase to fund new construction projects for I-SS, Mooresville Graded School District and Mitchell Community College.

At that time, the estimated cost for construction of the new I-SS high school was $80 million. Less than three years later, the estimated cost of building the new school at the site off Overcash Road in Troutman has jumped to $177 million.

“Twenty or 30 million over the bond, we could understand that,” I-SS Superintendent Jeff James said. “But double the price is alarming. I don’t think any of us can say we weren’t sticker-shocked.”

Many residents are now questioning why the district didn’t begin construction immediately, when construction costs were lower?

The answer, according to I-SS officials, is complicated.

First, the school board spent about nine months conducting a search for the next superintendent.

Second, there was significant turnover in the central office around the same time as district administrators either retired or left for new positions at a surprising rate. The individuals hired to fill these roles were given additional responsibilities as the board opted not to fill some of the open positions.

In October 2020, Scott Hager was named I-SS Director of Construction. When he accepted the position, his supervisor told him he needed to turn out a building that was low maintenance and would last 50 years-plus rather than 20 to 25 years, Hager said.

“That’s what I tried to do by setting up a (design) committee instead of having it based on one individual. My goal was to have all stakeholders have a say in how we build this building,” Hager said.

In January of 2021, Adams and Associates was selected as the architect.

A couple months later, the district decided to increase student capacity at the school from 1,200 to 1,600. That meant increasing the school’s footprint, the size of the athletic stadium and expanding parking facilities, all of which contributed to the cost increase.

According to I-SS Chief of Facilities, Maintenance and Technology Tim Ivey, both the county commissioners and school board have been committed to building a quality product.

Meanwhile, district officials are trying not to repeat past mistakes. For example, when Lake Norman High School opened it was at student capacity and the district had to bring in mobile units.

“It’s a big mindset (shift) from what we’ve done before. What we’ve done before is try and build something as quick and as fast as we possibly can. The budget drove so much of it instead of being a conversation about making it as maintenance free and able to last a long time,” Ivey said.

In the spring of 2021, the district was dealt another setback when the N.C. Department of Transportation introduced new school traffic requirements for queuing lanes on campus. This increased the amount of paved driveway required – and added to the overall cost.

Additionally, the district decided to apply for a state grant in April 2022, which put the project on pause until a decision was made on the grand funding.

Why does the site work cost so much?

I-SS purchased the land off Overcash Road near Troutman in 2008 to meet future growth in the area and address overcrowding at the high schools.

Site development costs, which are included in the $177 million estimate, are estimated to be around $77 million.

Ivey said some people mistakenly believe that the school district chose a bad piece of land for the new school.

“We chose a good site, but the site work package is more than just moving dirt around. It includes different parts of the facility,” Ivey said.

Furthermore, the district’s civil engineer David Reese with CESI said, “If you find a piece of land that is a flat site, which you won’t, you are paying for it upfront in the cost of the land.”

According to Reese, the best estimate for grading and infrastructure is around $32.7 million.

The overall site package includes items such as grading, curb/gutter, water runoff, parking lots, access roads, sidewalks, grass/synthetic turf and athletic stadiums.

“It also includes all of the infrastructure water, sewer and electric that has to be run for a facility of this size to operate properly,” Ivey explained.

“It is equivalent to a small town. There are also state and local requirements for a number of trees and other items that have to be included in the site package,” he added.

During a recent joint meeting of the I-SS board and county commissioners, one of the commissioners mentioned that Mooresville Graded School District has almost finished construction of the new middle school that was included in the 2020 bond referendum, while I-SS remains in the pre-construction stage of the Weathers Creek High School.

“We’re building a 114-acre complex, which cannot happen overnight. From the time the bond was approved, we started a bid process, which we are required to do by law. And, according to the contractor, we were on timeline,” James said.

MGSD also has a separate property tax, which allowed them to have the plans ahead of time for constructing their new middle school, James said.