Big slate of summer work 'on time, under budget'

School district capital improvements By MARY POSANI Wednesday August 20, 2014 3:46 PM

Summer capital improvement jobs across the Westerville City School District were completed on time and under budget, district officials report.

The district budgeted $4.5 million of work this summer to fix and update facilities. Though contractors are still closing out projects, district Facilities and Operations Director Jeff LeRose said the projects were completed for less than estimated.

Construction crews quickly worked in 10 weeks to complete all projects by deadline, which was prior to teachers returning to the buildings Aug. 11.

"On time and under budget are a great places to be," LeRose said.

Students are back in the buildings, but final finishing touches still need to be completed. District staff will evaluate the work and create a checklist for contractors, who have 30 days to finish the work prior to final payments.

At that point, LeRose said he will have a final tally of how much all the work cost, but preliminary reports say the district is simply "under budget."

Projects at Westerville South High School finished very close to deadline, but were completed enough to allow occupancy in the building. One caveat: South was to receive new windows this summer, but the windows have yet to be delivered.

Temporary glass windows were installed until the new ones arrive. LeRose expects the new windows to come mid-September.

South also underwent kitchen updates that included new counters and food service equipment. The new equipment arrived later than scheduled, causing crews to work over the weekend to get everything set up before school started.

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Big slate of summer work 'on time, under budget'