PSD accepts contractor's bid for elementary school

By Gary Raham
Wellington Correspondent

Poudre School District board members voted on June 12 to contract with Golden Triangle Construction in Longmont to build the much-anticipated second elementary school in Wellington.

The 63,000-square-foot school will be built on an 18.5-acre parcel purchased last December west of Interstate 25 in The Knolls housing development.

"The contractor will mobilize this week [of June 19]," said Bill Franzen, executive director of operations for the district, "and the substantial completion date has been set as June 14, 2007." Substantial completion means that the school will be finished for use but may have a few details left to finish before fall classes start.

PSD will begin accepting suggestions for naming the new school in August or September. More information on this process is available by e-mailing info@psdschools.org. Also available online are details of boundary changes for Eyestone Elementary and the new school.

Franzen said his staff had to ask for additional funds for construction to reflect increased building costs since voters approved a bond issue in 2000. The original $9.25 million estimate was made when building costs were $99 per square foot. They now exceed $148 per square foot, Franzen said. The board agreed to a revamped estimate of $11.75 million, of which $9,378,300 represents the cost of the building itself. Franzen said the building will have more brick and a somewhat flatter roofline than some other recent schools in Fort Collins so it will blend in better with the agricultural heritage of Wellington. These features added slightly to the cost increase.

The school district and the town of Wellington have also been working on an intergovernmental agreement that will standardize land dedications or payments in lieu of land dedications by developers for school purposes in the future. The town board was scheduled to go over the final draft of the IGA with the intent of approving it at the June 27 board meeting (after this paper went to press). The IGA specifies the average number of students expected in various dwellings, enrollment capacities of schools, school acreage requirements, and the value of developed land in that area. In Wellington's case, a new elementary school must be built on at least 15 acres and it will have a capacity of 525 students. Developed land value for average residential lots in 2006 is set at $100,000, subject to re-evaluation every two years.

Through IGAs, developers may offer land to school districts for potential school sites. They know it will provide a valuable selling point to homebuyers, although the cost of such gifts will also be passed along to consumers. In the past, developers--and some town board members--thought PSD had placed too high a value on Wellington land.

"Not all towns have IGAs with school districts," town administrator Larry Lorentzen said. "Districts can't hold up building schools. That's their job."

However, a spring 2005 meeting between PSD and Wellington community members indicated support for an IGA. The school board also conditioned construction of another school in Wellington on the agreement.