OXFORD – Residents of the Oxford Academy and Central School district will head back to the polls on Nov. 18, this time to decide the fate of a second, larger scale capital project, this one totaling $10,160,375.
The project’s scope of work consists of $7,150,880 in improvements at the Oxford Middle School – to include reconstruction of existing classrooms and facilities, installation of equipment to enable wireless connectivity, elevation of the boiler room and conversion of the building’s steam heating system to hot water.
At the Primary School, $161,425 has been allocated for site work and reconstruction at the Primary School, to include playground improvements, air conditioning in a handful of classrooms and installation of wireless technology.
$2,848,069 will be spent at the High School, of which $648,060 will be allocated to relocate the district and special programs offices, expand the school’s art room and develop a shared entrance with the Primary School. The remaining $1.34 million is slated for site work, including new bleachers and other improvements to the school’s athletic fields.
According to Superintendent Randy Squier, this last item will require the district to expend $200,375 of its capital reserve.
“EXCEL funds do not directly cover the costs of field renovations,” he explained. Typically the percentage of the project’s contingency and incidental costs which is aided are sufficient to cover field renovations, he added. In this instance, however, since the scope of work at the Primary/High School is limited, “not enough contingency and incidental aid is generated to cover the costs of all the field work being proposed at that campus,” he reported. Hence the need to dip into the capital reserve.
Members of the district’s board of education voted unanimously to establish the date for the voter referendum only after striking a second proposition from the resolution which would have added an estimated $339,625 to the project’s total cost. The item referred to the construction of a new field house/concession stand at Blackhawk Stadium. Initial estimates for the structure were $249,000, which escalated to over $330,000 when contingency and incidental costs were factored in.
According to Squier, the board decided to split the item off into a separate proposition as it would not be eligible for state building aid. Instead, its full cost would need to come out of the district’s capital reserve fund.
While Board Member Joe Spence said he didn’t “dispute the need for more storage,” he said it would be “ludicrous” for the board to propose constructing what amounted to a “quarter of a million dollar popcorn facility” when it was laying off teachers.
“I’m not comfortable sending that message,” he said.
Spence found support for his position from fellow board member Pete Heggie.
“I think it’s not responsible to send it out there,” Heggie said.
Board President Dawn Golden concurred.
“What we have now is workable,” she stated, referring to the press box/concession stand currently in use at the field, which was constructed by the community in the 1970s.
A detailed list of the project’s scope and order of magnitude cost estimates can be viewed on the district’s website, www.oxac.org, under the Departments tab or contacting the district office at 843-2025.