Orange County NC Website
Smith Middle School Construction/K-12 Campus <br />When the original concept of a new middle school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools <br />district was proposed, the anticipated location was the Meadowmont development (on land <br />donated by the developer). Since that time, the original concept has changed and the District <br />has decided upon a new site for the middle school. Current plans include constructing the new <br />school, now known as Smith Middle School, on a site occupied by Chapel Hill High School and <br />Seawell Elementary School, thereby creating a shared campus for kindergarten through twelfth <br />grade (K-12). <br />To that end, the project's scope has transformed from solely a middle school construction <br />project to a campus-wide project. The District had to undertake several site preparation details <br />in order to locate the new school in an appropriate location on the campus. Many of the special <br />site preparations include relocating and/or reassigning playing fields and playgrounds of the <br />existing schools to other areas on the site. For example, in order to locate the middle school <br />physical education field adjacent to the new building, the District has to relocate Seawell <br />Elementary's playground. Other project evolutions include the request from the Town of <br />Carrboro and Orange County to develop an additional playing field for community use. Staff will <br />address this part of the project in the 2000-2010 Capital Investment Plan when Orange County <br />receives funds from the recent sale of the first installment of the 1997 bond. <br />The project budget totals $19.8 million with funding coming from the 1997 voter approved <br />bonds ($18 million) and the remainder coming from the District's impact fees. To date, the <br />Commissioners hage approved funding for the following components of the project: <br />Planning/Architect/Engineer $1,505,000 <br />Site Development $1,000,000 <br />New School Construction (per bids <br />received by Board of Education) $12,688,924 <br />Contingency $250,000 <br />Total Project Budget Before This <br />Request $15,443,924 <br />Since the date of the last Commissioner's update on this project in late January 2000, work as <br />the site has progressed. <br />• Site Development and Survey Work: When the Commissioners approved the original <br />ordinance for the project in June 1998, estimated site development costs were $1 <br />million. As mentioned previously, the project concept has undergone much <br />transformation since that time. Relocation of many of the playing fields and construction <br />of new ones have caused site development costs to increase. The total contract for site <br />development now totals $2,061,197. In addition, costs for survey work at the project site <br />total $22,600. Therefore the District requests that the Board approve an additional <br />$1,083,797 for these two items. <br />Construction: The District has a need for two small scope contracts that were not <br />included in the phase approved by the Commissioners in fate January 2000. The two <br />contracts cover balancing the HVAC system and installing the security system. The <br />