in other words
january24
2012
What it Takes to Build A School – Part I
By Dr. Ken Cox
Superintendent Vernonia School Dis-
trict
When it all started it all seemed
so simple; we were going to build a
school. What I have learned since those
naïve days is that this is a far more com-
plex endeavor than I ever imagined.
As I think back I can see that
there has been three distinct phases to
the project: determining the best site, the
whole FEMA-NEPA process of identi-
fying and then meeting federal program
guidelines, and then finally construction.
However, the construction has many
parts as well: the wetlands on the site,
the utility and street changes on both
Missouri Ave and Bridge St, the building
construction itself, the future demolition
of our existing schools, and finally the
construction of the replacement Spencer
Park.
What I would like to do is give
you a breakdown of each of the differ-
ent projects and how we are progressing
on them. In this article I will touch on
what has been done and in process. In
Part II I will talk about what is to come:
the demolition, park construction, future
community involvement, and the overall
budget.
Wetlands Mitigation
When we first identified the site,
the first order of business was to pur-
chase enough land to go with Spencer
Park to build a school. We ended up pur-
chasing five pieces of property from four
different owners. Once the property was
secured the biggest challenge was the
nearly four acres of wetlands. By law we
must mitigate, or replace, these wetlands
with twice as much comparable wet-
lands. We looked at two different sites
for these mitigated wetlands: one in Ver-
nonia and the other a stream restoration
along a nearby creek. After many discus-
sions we determined that it would be best
to go with the wetlands in Vernonia and
we worked with the City of Vernonia to
create the wetlands that are now fenced
in orange about a quarter mile west of
Vernonia Lake. This seven acre parcel
has been designed and created so that it
will collect water and maintain enough
moisture to maintain native plant spe-
cies. In fact, the site will be monitored
for the next five years to make sure that
the plants have survived under typical
weather conditions.
As we began the wetlands con-
struction we have continually looked
for ways to provide for collaboration
between the different aspects of the en-
tire project and the community. Some
examples of this are our forestry class
which will assist the landscaper in some
of the planting in the spring, both at the
new school site and at the wetlands. In
addition, we will work with the City to
amend our Intergovernmental Agree-
ment to allow our students to maintain
the wetlands rather than pay the City to
do so. And another aspect of collabora-
tion is that the wetlands will be used as
a hands-on part of our natural resources
curriculum, as we will eventually have
learning stations placed around the en-
tire wetlands. The wetlands will also be
included as an integral part of the City’s
overall park design for all of the prop-
erty between Vernonia Lake and the new
Spencer Park (where the schools are
now).
Initially we budgeted $300,000
for the wetlands development. In June of
2011, we decided to increase the budget
to $500,000 based on the information
we had at the time. We then published
a Request for Proposals (RFP) and out
of over 20 companies who showed in-
terest we selected the lowest bidder at
$875,000. We believe the increase was
due at least in part to the uncertainty on
the number of concrete foundations that
were buried in the underbrush on the
site. We continue to work with the land-
scape contractor on this project to find
ways to reduce this total cost. One way
is to use natural plant species that Mr.
Project Budget by Category
CONSTRUCTION TOTAL
DESIGN/PERMITTING
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING/
MITIGATION/PERMITTING
REAL PROPERTY
MISCELLANEOUS COSTS
FUNDRAISING/FINANCING COSTS
CONTINGENCY
PROJECT TOTAL COST
$30,000,000
$4,200,000
$800,000
$1,600,000
$1,600,000
$300,000
$1,000,000
$500,000
$40,000,000
Miller can get from the Bureau of Land
Management at no cost and the other is
to have students help with the planting in
the spring.
Off-Site Construction (Missouri Ave.
and Bridge St.)
I remember sitting in a meeting
at the ODOT Offices in Portland when
they told us that their initial estimate to
widen Bridge Street at the new site was
$6,000,000. I didn’t want to believe them
especially since we had only budgeted
$3,300,000 for all the work necessary on
both Missouri Avenue and Bridge Street.
We were all very pleased to hear Gov-
ernor Kulongoski at the groundbreak-
ing in December of 2010, announce that
the state would provide $3,800,000 for
the project. Because the ODOT funding
could not be used for utilities, we began
a separate project to deal with the off-site
utilities. We have worked with the Plan-
ning Commission and WOEC to move
the electric lines from underground to
overhead in order to save over $80,000
on the project. At ODOT’s request, rath-
er than going straight down Missouri to
Bridge and then east along Bridge, we
had the sewer lines go east along Ala-
bama (before they got to Bridge) and
then along the St. Mary’s property down
the gulley to go under Bridge Street. We
also published an RFP for the sewer and
storm water run-off from the site south
along Missouri. This work has met nu-
merous challenges: the first was there
was solid rock in part of the excavation.
Then we found that the existing sewer
line beneath Bridge St. was not adequate
to handle the new school’s needs and so
we are having to bore underneath the
highway to install a bigger line down to
the pump station.
On the budget side, once ODOT
became part of the project we no longer
had to worry about the street improve-
ments. But, we still needed to deal with
the underground utilities. The original
bid award for the storm water/sewer RFP
was $275,000, but due to issues, includ-
ing the extensive sewer line extension I
described above, that cost is currently
estimated at $400,000.
Building Construction
When we began looking for a
contractor to build our schools we chose
to use a construction model known as
CMGC, which stands for Construction
Manager General Contractor. The basic
premise of this construction model is
that we hire a contractor early on, who
then works with the architects through-
continued on page 6
3
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Mackenzie Carr
Dr. Ken Cox
Chip Bubl
Nate Izzett
Bill Langmaid
DeAnna Pearl
Sonia Spackman
William Wells
Photography
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Scott Laird
Jonah Ooten
Mystery Pentz
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