Facility updates for MCISD
The MCISD board approved two final completions and payments for two of their ongoing projects at the Jan. 21 board meeting – the nurse’s office and a ramp for the Leal Elementary renovation and the field house at High School.
The Leal Elementary renovation was finished on time, so there are no liquidated damages; however, the field house project accumulated a possible total of $136, 410 in liquidation. The initial balance for the contract was $168, 237.
The field house was a 124 days late for final completions due to issues with bringing the heating and cooling systems up to code. Although it was late, Superintendent Ricardo Lopez was adamant about not cutting corners on the project.
“It saddens me that we have had to go through this,” the superintendent said prior to completion. “But our taxpayers deserve for us to follow what the standards are, and we’re not going to short change our kids because of it.”
The board also approved an extra 27 weather days in addition to the already approved 21 weather days to the Mission Collegiate High School construction. These changes would put the project back a month and half and move the opening date to Aug. 16, only two weeks before the 2015-2016 school year starts.
“They have noted some muddy days; however, it is their responsibility to protect the project,” said Rick Rivera, the MCISD executive director for facilities/maintenance construction. “If they need to put caliché on the entrance to get to the project then they need to do that.”
An ongoing issue has been getting the Tom Landry Stadium restroom facilities up to code. In October, EGV architects informed the board that the stadium needed 155 restroom facilities to bring the stadium up to the latest ADA code of 2012.
McAllen ISD is in the same predicament and is trying to obtain a variance from the city of McAllen so they won’t have to comply with constructing the 100-plus restrooms. MCISD will ask the city of Mission for a similar variance, but it will need to supply porta-potties to meet capacity regulations.
Four projects remain in the design phases: the administration building, the Mission Junior High Kitchen, the agricultural barn facility and the Mission High School.
EGV architects are studying both a one and two-story building option for the administration building and hope to have a schematic design by the Feb. 4 committee meeting. The total construction is $9.5 million, including soft costs.
PBK architects are still pushing for the initial timeline that was agreed upon by the first architect company for the Mission High project. Worst-case scenario, PBK said it would take them six months from January to complete all the paperwork and move onto the groundbreaking phase.
The agriculture barn is in the final design stage and the architects are aiming to complete the construction documents by the end of February, and four of the 14 elementary running tracks have already received an order of construction.
