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Joshua C. Bower, a representative from the architectural firm Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, reported Monday evening, Oct. 14, to the Southampton County School Board that the Community/Parent Resource Center the division is developing received a bid below the projected cost to build it.

The project will involve renovation of an existing building, and the facility is slated to be located next to Central Office in Courtland. It has previously had a projected budget of $1 million, and Bower said the bid puts the cost at about $100,000 less than the total project budget.

“This really is wonderful news,” Bower said. “This allows us to have a little bit of flexibility in our cost.”

He said it is expected that with a building of the maturity that the existing structure has, some surprises are expected during the construction/demolition process.

“In the last couple of weeks, we did do some cost reduction, including reducing the number of toilet rooms, also changing the offices to more cubicles, and we believe that these reductions were successful,” Bower said.

His presentation to the board highlighted the following project cost reductions:

• Install asphalt shingles;
• Delete gypsum ceiling;
• Delete one toilet room; 
• Delete kitchenette; 
• Install vinyl windows;
• Install concrete floor at grade; 
• Delete three offices – install cubicles; and
• Receiving area to be unfinished.

The School Board’s Facilities Committee features Denise Bunn and Brandon Rodgers, who both worked closely with Bower to make the project work.

“I was glad to see that it came in under budget,” Bunn said. “We’ve been working really hard trying to make some changes so that we could do that, and with that additional money, that gives us some flexibility with this. You never know when you start building something when incidentals come up.”

The board voted 8-0 to accept the bid for the Community/Parent Resource Center.

School Board Member Donna Rountree was not present for the meeting.