Board delays decision on Fayette’s new middle school. Costs jumped 49% to $70.5 million.

Dramatic increases in construction materials have bumped up the cost of Lexington’s new middle school 49 percent to $70. 5 million, prompting Fayette schools board members on Monday to slightly delay approving the project.

Board members asked for a couple of more days to decide whether to accept the low bid from the general contractor D.W. Wilburn Inc. or rebid on the planned Polo Club Boulevard school at a later date.

Board members Amy Green and Christy Morris asked for some more financial projections. Board members expect to meet within the week and consider a decision that would perhaps keep the project on schedule.

Construction on the new middle school in the growing residential area of Hamburg, if approved, could open in the fall of 2023. Monday’s meeting was the first time board members had heard about the increased cost of the project, district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said.

“Construction costs across not only the Commonwealth but the country are increasing,” said school district chief operating officer Myron Thompson. “These are large scale buildings.”

The total project cost for the new Tates Creek High School building is about $88 million.

If the school board moves forward with the project it will be the first new middle school built by Fayette County Public Schools since Edythe J. Hayes Middle School in 2004. Costs for Hayes was about $18 million for 900 students in 2002.

“Technology is in the forefront in terms of how we are educating students,” Thompson said of the differences in what a middle school needs to offer now. “I think you are going to see a completely different remake of the middle school program.”

The new middle school will be focused around student’s career interests much as Fayette high schools are structured in the academy model.

In spring 2020, Fayette County Public Schools purchased 47 acres of land along Polo Club Boulevard for a new middle school and elementary school. The middle school is planned for 1,200 students and will be 171,983 square feet in size. Land costs for the Polo Club Middle School has been listed at $13.7 million.

The estimated construction budget for the project earlier in the year was $38.4 million with a total project cost of $47.2 million.

Bids were opened Oct. 26. Taking the lowest bid would be a construction budget of $58.5 million, which is 52 percent over the prior projected cost.

The total project cost would be $70.5 million, which is 49 percent over the previously projected cost. Sixty percent of the increase is in construction materials alone, said Thompson.

District officials on Monday in an interview with the Herald-Leader pointed to an Oct. 4 industry standards report, the Jones Lang LaSalle Construction Outlook, that said the volatility in construction material prices experienced this year is unprecedented in contemporary history.

“The increases in lumber and steel prices are by far the largest recorded through available government data back to 1949, “ that report said.

“For other commodities the records are somewhat more recent: aluminum prices have not increased this fast since 1995, plastic since 1976, copper since 2010. The inauspicious distinction this year is that all those records are being broken at the same time. Average material prices for a commercial project increased an astounding 23 percent in the 12 months prior to August 2021,” said the report.

Thompson said there are supply chain issues, manufacturers are having a difficult time getting workers to produce products and getting them from point A to point B.

“There’s a culmination of a lot of things occurring in this new COVID world we are living in,” said Thompson.

District officials said other Kentucky school projects have also come in significantly above budget, including an addition to Lexington Catholic High School, the Central Hardin High School addition and renovation, and the Jefferson County Echo Trail Middle School.

The cost of materials for the new Tates Creek High School under construction was $59.55 per square foot. The cost of materials for the low bid on the new middle school was $133.18 per square foot.

That difference accounts for the $12.6 million swing in costs, officials said.

School board members at Monday’s meeting were concerned about whether it was prudent to move forward with the new middle school. But they are also worried about school overcrowding and about whether costs would increase even more after a delay.

Board member Stephanie Spires said the district can’t afford not to move forward and build the long awaited new middle school.

Most middle schools in Fayette public school are at or over their capacity of students, staff members told board members Monday.

This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 1:11 PM.