A $28,113,881 maximum construction cost was set for the Salish Coast Elementary School after the Port Townsend School Board voted May 30 in favor of a price contract with Absher Construction Co.

Salish Coast Elementary is to replace the aging Grant Street Elementary building, which was built in 1956.

Ground is to be broken for the new school at 8:15 a.m. on Friday, June 16. The new school is funded by a $40.9 million bond that voters overwhelmingly approved in February.

The $28.1 million maximum price contract covers the “hard costs” of the new school, with the remaining $12.9 million going toward “soft costs.”

Integrus Architecture of Seattle and Absher Construction of Puyallup have been contracted to do the work.

Students continue to attend Grant Street Elementary as the new school is built in the fields just west of the current school. They are to move into the new building in the spring of 2018, after which the old school is to be demolished.

According to the contract, construction must be completed by Aug. 17, 2018.

To prepare for construction, the contractor is to install fencing and conduct survey work during the last week of school this year.

PREPARATION

“Really, it is going to be quite a large project for the city,” said Brad Taylor, director of facilities for the Port Townsend School District.

“When you look at the footprint – and it’s laid out on the playfield right now – it’s pretty impressive how big this thing is,” he said.

“It’s almost double the size,” Taylor said of plans for the 68,000-square-foot new school. By comparison, Grant Street Elementary is 35,000 square feet.

“But you do realize we’re bringing the fourth- and fifth-graders back into it. We’re taking them out of Blue Heron and putting them back in [the new elementary school].”

There are about 300 students at Grant Street now, but with the fourth- and fifth-graders moving in, the student population jumps to about 450 students in the new building, which is to accommodate as many as 600 students.

Taylor said Grant Street Elementary was over capacity.

“That building is just crammed right now,” he said.

PORTABLES TO BE REMOVED

Grant Street Elementary currently uses seven portable school buildings in addition to the main building in order to accommodate the students. But those portables are to be removed when the new building is complete.

Taylor said the project is currently going through the permitting process, and said about half of the work has already received bids, so the district knows what the mechanical and electrical systems are going to cost.

Taylor said the City of Port Townsend has helped speed up the permitting process.

“The schedule on this thing is so tight that we really can’t waste any time.”

Taylor said there will be a barrier between the two schools during construction.

“We’ll have a sound barrier most likely. We’re coming almost against the existing school while we’re doing construction, and everything that is going to be under construction is fenced off, away from the existing building,” he said.

One of the problems the district has is finding a place for a playfield during the construction period as the contractor is taking over the entire playfield space, from the back of the current building all the way to the property line.

“They’re needing that much space to actually manage construction of this thing,” he said.

Taylor said construction would begin on the east side of the new school’s footprint, which is right behind the current building.

“That’s going to be the starting point with the foundation … and we’ll just build back.”

The structure is to be primarily wood frame, he said.

FOUNDATION TO BE LAID

The foundation is planned to be finished by early September, followed by framing work.

“One thing we’re upgrading … is a heat-pump heating system, which allows a lot better air circulation so the air quality can be a lot better. That’s one upgrade that I’m fighting to keep, but there’s cheaper ways of putting systems in.”

Taylor said the heat pump has cooling capability, but is not considered air conditioning.

The lot where the OCEAN (Opportunity, Community, Experience, Academics and Navigation) Program is housed, across the street from the school, is to be used for parking space.

LEAKY PIPES, BAD ROOF

Taylor said the Grant Street building has leaky pipes that are hard to access, along with other problems.

“The way it was designed, there’s pipes up in what they call a soffit that we can’t even get to. I actually have a pipe leaking that I cannot repair without tearing walls out, and so it’s been sitting for the last year just dripping into a bucket,” he said.

“That, and the roof is totally shot.”

The way teaching is done is also different today, he said, with more place-based and outdoor learning. The district is also keeping class sizes for kindergarten through third grade at 17 students or fewer.

“The style of teaching is changing, too. We’re getting a lot more cooperative teaching where … people are teaming up to teach classes,” Taylor said.

The new classrooms are designed to be flexible in size – from 900 to 1,200 square feet.

“So, we adjust according to what class sizes are and when people want to have a learning space and teach together, like our OCEAN class does; they can open up a room and make it 1,200 [square] feet.”

The new building makes the old problems go away and offers students a first-rate facility to learn in.

“I just want to see it happen. I’m excited to be on the team that’s working on this,” he said.