OXFORD – By focusing on “the nuts and bolts” and holding off on the “bells and whistles,” the Oxford school board and Facility Advisory Committee have managed to shave close to $3 million off phase one of the district’s two-part capital project, originally estimated at $7.1 million.

District residents could be voting on the resulting $4.1 million building project by late September.

Last night, the board and committee met with three representatives from the Bernier Carr Group, the architectural consulting firm retained by the district. As a group, they spent three hours reviewing a 16-page document prepared by architect Jason Jantzi, which priced out 42 items identified either during the building condition study or by district staff members as potentials for the first phase of the proposed project. They had met previously to review close to 70 items that were identified in the first part of the process.

“Do these fall under the Phase I umbrella, or can they wait?” asked Superintendent Randy Squier, as Jantzi discussed each item from the list in turn.

By the end of the meeting, approximately 13 items had been rejected as either needing to be refined more or qualifying as a Phase II “bells and whistle.”

In the Middle School, an $82,500 reconfiguration of the main office, $40,000 for replacing whiteboards and $50,000 for installing multi-level classroom lighting in the building were among the items cut, as were several smaller items such as providing tack boards in the hallways and replacing the controller unit for the bell tower.