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The consolidation of three schools into one building is by far the greatest cost-cutting measure undertaken by the district. By constructing one building instead of three separate schools, the district will save millions in construction and design costs. For example, one option studied during feasibility, was to construct a replacement for the Douglas Elementary School. The cost estimate to replace only the Douglas School was $99M. With the total project cost for constructing three schools in one building set not to exceed $117.3M, the consolidation of the schools represents millions in cost savings and years of construction.
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By voting to proceed with a single-phase construction process as opposed to a multi-phase option, the building committee not only saved approximately 15 months of construction and disruption to students, but saved approximately $7M in construction costs (PSR Options 4 and 4.1).
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Each mechanical system designed for the new school is being evaluated by the building committee in order to assess initial and life-cycle costs and sustainability. Building a Net-Zero School has been a project goal not only to be environmentally sustainable, but in order to be cost-efficient for the next half-century.
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An additional priority of the building committee with regard to cost saving measures is to maximize state reimbursement for various project costs. The building committee has been evaluating each proposed space within the building in order to maximize the amount that the project can be reimbursed by the MSBA.
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The building committee engaged in a "Value Engineering" process that was able to reduce the costs of the new building by approximately $3.5M without sacrificing the educational programs of the schools.