BY KARISSA MILLER
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education will select a construction company to build the new Weathers Creek High School by May 13, if all goes as planned, according to school officials.
Voters approved an $80 million bond referendum to finance construction of the new school in March of 2020. Iredell County commissioners have agreed to borrow an additional $40 million for the project.
During Monday’s I-SS board meeting, Chief Technology, Facilities, and Maintenance Officer Tim Ivey shared a brief update for the new school, which is planned for 246 Overcash Road in Troutman. The school, which is needed to alleviate overcrowding at Lake Norman and South Iredell high schools, will be built for 1,600 students.
The district advertised the Weathers Creek High School project on March 7 in three different newspapers. On March 18, the bid documents were made available to any interested construction companies.
“We did have several who came by and picked up those documents,” Ivey told the board.
The deadline for submitting bids is April 30. After that, the bids will be vetted by the architect, Adams and Associates of Mooresville, which will provide its recommendation to I-SS by May 7.
“We plan to present (the bids) to the board, hopefully, by May 13th as long as we have three competitive bids,” Ivey said.
Board member Michael Kubiniec asked about the timeline for construction.
According to Ivey, the school will be ready to open three years from the day construction begins.
“As we are going right now, we are looking at 27-28,” Ivey said.
The latest cost estimates for the school were in the $200 million range. It is unclear how county commissioners will pay for the overage if the winning bid exceeds $120 million.
Ivey told the I-SS board that the district is starting to see a decline in construction costs. He mentioned that originally the Harmony Elementary School project was estimated to cost slightly over $1 million, but came in at around $803,000.
“Hopefully, that will be in our favor as we couldn’t control the inflation rate and all the other different hurdles that we’ve had to jump with this project,” Ivey said.
Contract awarded for Harmony Elementary renovations
In other business, the board approved low bidder Neil Construction, which submitted a bid of $803,020, for Harmony Elementary School’s gym renovation project.
The project includes:
♦ Replacing dry-rotted floor trusses and replacing the entire gymnasium floor with new hardwood surface;
♦ Adding a handicap accessible bathroom and renovating the office and storage area; and
♦ Replacing the HVAC unit and installing a new roof on flat roof section below the HVAC unit
The district approved to use a combination of grants, repair and renovation lottery finds and capital funding to pay for this project.
New ratings for alternative schools
Additionally, the board approved the Alternative Schools’ Modified Accountability Option B for the 2024-2025 school year. A school will be assigned a rating comparing the previous year to the current year. The ratings are progressing, maintaining and declining.