Change order moves Sullivan parking lot paving to this summer

The Bonsall Unified School District approved a change order to the construction project for Sullivan Middle School and Bonsall High School which will move the paving of the lower parking lot from Phase 2 to Phase 1.

The BUSD board’s 5-0 vote May 8 will allow the paving of the parking lot to take place this summer.

“We’re figuring we might as well get it done,” said BUSD superintendent Justin Cunningham.

The change order adds $54,375 to the Phase 1 contract whose amount is increased from $1,238,478 to $1,292,986. The initial Phase 1 scope of work included grading and compacting decomposed granite (DG) in the lower lot. “Instead of having the DG we are going to go ahead and pave it,” Cunningham said. “We would eventually have to pave it anyway.”

The Phase 2 work scheduled for next year included paving the parking lot, so the move to Phase 1 eliminates the duplication involving the lower parking lot. “Having a board member like Lou Riddle with experience in construction really helps on decisions like that,” Cunningham said.

The estimated cost to repeat the grading work in Phase 2 was $88,875, so that amount is saved by moving the entirety of the surface work to Phase 1.

Both Sullivan Middle School and the new Bonsall High School will utilize the New Technology Network model in which students interact with local industry and serve internships in order to develop a network in their desired career fields. The New Tech curriculum also utilizes interdisciplinary fields and thus requires classrooms able to accommodate two teachers and up to 50 students. Phase 1 primarily involves removing walls of some classrooms to create the larger rooms for the New Technology Network program.

The entirety of the parking lot project was originally slated for Phase 2. On Jan. 9, the BUSD board voted 5-0 to approve a change order to move the initial parking lot improvements from a future phase to the current phase. The change order added surveying, civil engineering, and plan preparation tasks for grading and drainage of the parking lots to the Phase 1 scope of work along with preparation of a stormwater pollution prevention plan and electrical engineering and plan preparation for parking lot lighting in the lower lot.

The school currently has an upper parking lot with a decomposed granite surface for faculty parking and a lower parking lot with a grass and rock surface. The lower lot will become the student lot with the addition of Bonsall High School, and an estimated 100 students will use the student lot.

The work qualifies for Qualified Zone Academy Bond funding. The Qualified Zone Academy Bond program of the U.S. Department of Education is administered through state education departments and provides low-interest loans. The expected BUSD interest rate is 1 1/4 percent.

The paving of the parking lot is expected to be finished before school resumes in August.