Bids set to go out for first leg of Batavia High expansion

Next week the first construction bids will go out for the Batavia High School expansion, a project that will take three years and nearly double the size of the school district officials said Tuesday.

Construction manager Ian Lamp said the project will be spread over three phases, with more than 20 new classrooms starting to take shape this fall. That project will go out for bid next month and should be completed in August 2009.

The bids going out next week will be for site work which will reconfigure parking, bus lanes and water retention, Lamp said.

About this time next year, the district will start the process to add a 875-seat auditorium and 56,000-square-foot field house. The field house will be large enough to hold four full-size basketball courts, Steven Hougsted of architectural firm Arcon said.

Hougsted said adding nearly 200,000 square feet to the building -- which sits on a 45-acre parcel -- was difficult but rewarding. The project is estimated to take about $61 million of a $75 million building referendum passed last year.

Lamp said those two phases of the project should each take 18 months and finish in the summer of 2011, with additional reconfigurations of the existing building also taking place that summer.

In addition to the construction schedule, board of education members were also given a digital fly-by of the new building.

Superintendent Jack Barshinger said the fly-by really lets people see that the new façade will not impose on its neighbors. Board members echoed the sentiment and said they were very happy with the design.

Barshinger said the project will go forward without an addition of land from neighbor Mooseheart. Last week an opportunity to use $5 million of taxpayer money to buy the land expired without a transaction.

The community approved the money in 2003, and state statute states the money must be levied within five years.

Barshinger said the land would have been used for athletic fields. The district will look for other opportunities, but will ensure that the expansion comes first.

"Right now we have to see where the construction costs come in. That will greatly limit our ability to seek a new deal. We need to make sure we deliver on the promises of the referendum first," Barshinger said.