Hamilton school additions receive board approval

Sussex - The Hamilton School Board voted Monday night to move ahead with two building additions at Marcy and Woodside elementary schools.

The board's approval gave district administrators the go-ahead to work with architectural and construction firms and establish bids for the two projects. The school district will partner with architectural firm Plunkett Raysich and construction company J.P. Cullen as it begins the bidding process.

The School Board, which authorized $232,000 in spending for the architectural and construction management contracts at the meeting, will make a final determination on the projects this spring, after final bids arrive.

District administrators said the additions are needed to help the schools cover future and existing enrollment as well as replace four temporary classrooms at Woodside Elementary, where village of Sussex officials have told the district its temporary classrooms must be gone by 2014.

Enrollments at both Marcy and Woodside currently exceed their originally designed capacity, and Marcy - located in Menomonee Falls - is the fastest-growing school in the district. Woodside, with its four temporary classrooms, currently has 674 students; it was built to handle 600. Marcy, meanwhile, has 525 students and an original capacity of 500 students.

At Woodside, the plan presented by administrators called for a five-classroom addition, a net gain of one classroom after the temporary units disappear. The school would also construct a 1,500-square-foot multi-purpose room to add additional band and gymnasium space.

Marcy's design calls for a six-classroom addition along with a new multi-purpose room, or "flex space." The multi-purpose room would be built in place of two current classrooms, while the six additional classrooms would be a separate addition to the school's overall footprint. The Marcy plan would yield a net gain of four new classrooms.

Both schools would also construct new bathrooms to meet municipal code requirements.

Estimates put the projects total cost at roughly $4 million - $2 million for each addition. At a Jan. 3 School Board meeting, administrators said the district would pay for the projects without asking taxpayers for a referendum. It would instead use funding from its maintenance budget and its fund balance. Hamilton's maintenance budget typically funds capital improvements like HVAC upgrades, roofing and paving projects. The district also said it will use approximately $2 million from its fund balance.

The district also believes that the current state of the economy creates a favorable bidding climate as construction and architectural firms clamor for work.

After introducing the proposal to the School Board on Jan. 3, the Hamilton Facilities Advisory Committee, which is comprised of community members, parents, retirees, staff, and business owners, met on Jan. 11 and endorsed the plan.

The district chose the two additions over several other plans presented to the School Board, including the construction of a new middle school, redistricting or taking no action.

Administrators hope to begin the project as early as this spring, with an expected completion date during the 2012-13 school year.