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Published on 06/12/1996 All articles from this issue

MV-LA school district accepts high bid for summer work

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By Kristina Allen / Town Crier Staff Writer

Construction at the high schools will happen this summer, becausethe Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District board votedunanimously at a special June 3 meeting to accept the only bidon the project that came in $500,000 over budget.

Utilities construction at Los Altos and Mountain View high schoolswill begin June 17 and is scheduled for completion by late Augustor early September of this year. Utilities construction involvestrenching around both high school campuses, laying sewer, electricaland gas lines, cable for fiber optics.

"It's kind of like creating a freeway system that carrieselectricity, water, sewer, all these things around the campus,"said Don Phillips, district superintendent.

Swenson and Associates of Campbell placed the only bid to theschool district for the work. The school district and the constructioncompany are still finalizing the amount of the bid, trying toreduce the initial $3.85 million cost.

Phillips said officials hope to shave $150,000 to $200,000 offthe initial bids by increasing the timeline of the project toavoid worker overtime costs and by being more practical aboutuses of materials.

He said the district and the construction company are reviewingwith architects and engineers to see if costs can be cut.

District officials were looking to avoid a second project delayin a month brought on by high construction bids. The board lastmonth postponed originally scheduled classroom renovations afterbids came in $2 million higher that expected.

Last week, the resident-driven Construction Overview Commissionmet with the school board to review information and decide whetherto accept the bid or postpone construction this summer. Both groupsagreed delaying the utilities work would ultimately not be costeffective because the entire schedule for the $58 million schoolsrenovation project could be thrown off.

"I felt good about the process," he said. "Youwant a process by which you weigh the trade-offs as best you can."

Other construction issues need decisions in the immediate future.

"The board still wants to talk about the issue of air conditioning,"Phillips said. "Several (participants) want to look at airconditioning throughout the site."

Currently, plans show air conditioning for only new classrooms.

The school board met again Monday to address the issue of approvingair conditioning for all classrooms.

The district is also taking another look at the original constructionplan and reviewing the budget, going over designs for prototypeclassrooms scheduled for October construction, and finalizingdesigns for the new science classrooms.