High school renovation contract approved

With the county engineer’s support, the School Board voted this week to move forward with a $125,500 renovation plan contract for Culpeper County High School.

Construction Projects Manager Hunter Spencer took engineer Chris Hively on a 90-minute guided tour of the 220,000-square-foot building Monday morning. That afternoon, Hively shared his opinion with School Board Chairman George Dasher.

“The primary focus of the master plan should be geared to identifying the upgrade requirements, their ranking and sequencing issues and less on detailed renovation recommendations, which could easily become outdated before funds are available to address them,” Hively wrote via e-mail to county administrators and school officials.

The board voted 7-0 to grant the CCHS master plan contract to the SHW Group during its special meeting Tuesday evening. The action comes about two months before the county is scheduled to open its second high school, Eastern View, at a cost of $53 million.

This isn’t the first time the board has considered the CCHS renovation contract. In March, it voted 5-2 against moving forward because, “We didn’t see how we could pay for it,” said Dasher. “That was the big difference.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, Dasher said year-end funding could be diverted to award the contract.

Spencer said if board members had decided to conduct the planning in-house, the cost would drastically increase.

“What is important is having a plan that lays out the entire job,” Spencer said. “And if you’re going to be doing in pieces, you’re going to need a master plan.”

Dasher also pointed out that when you hire a team, it comes with its own electrical and mechanical consultants.

“If you start building a team and the consultants don’t know each other, you don’t have the synergy of teams that work together,” he said. “I’m convinced it would cost more to do the plan ourselves.”

Spencer expects designs for the 39-year-old structure to be completed in November. However, it is unclear when renovations would actually begin.

Construction workers will conduct the renovations in phases over many years. It is too early too tell how much the CCHS renovation would cost, but Hively recommends a “less-is-more” approach when it comes to the limited funding timeline.

“Once a laundry list can be developed to cover the near future, lower-priority items could more effectively be addressed in a follow-up study to ensure the recommendations remain current,” he said.

Rhonda Simmons can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 125 or .