The long-delayed Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District’s Partnership School took a few more steps toward its anticipated August 2020 opening at Tuesday’s SOCSD Board of Trustees meeting.
Bruce Wood, principal architect with the Flowood-based firm JH&H, said construction under the current contract will be finished Feb. 19. The firm will allow 60 days for revisions and additions, meaning the entire site will be completely done April 19, but the interior should be done by the end of March, he said.
“(At that point), we can also have conversations about the A/V system and those contracts, and get that going so that everything can be up and running as soon as possible,” Wood said.
The building will include a grand staircase, some floor-to-ceiling windows and some outdoor space that can be used for classroom instruction or for other activities, he said.
Superintendent Eddie Peasant said working with Mississippi State University to bring the Partnership School to life presented new challenges to the district, such as adhering to MSU’s building codes and installing A/V equipment that other schools in SOCSD do not have.
“To a certain extent, in my opinion, it’s been kind of (like) shooting in the dark because it’s something that we haven’t and they haven’t done before,” Peasant said.
The campus for grades 6-7 — which will be located at MSU — was originally scheduled to open in August 2018 before rain delays pushed it to November 2018, August 2019 and finally August 2020.
The 123,000 square-foot building is funded by a local $16 million bond, a $10 million allocation from the Mississippi Legislature and cash and land donations by MSU. Construction first ran into trouble in August 2017 when weather concerns, primarily Hurricane Harvey, drove up the cost of construction materials, causing an overall increase of about $2 million.
The original projected cost was $27.5 million. When SOCSD board accepted a bid from Columbus-based West Brothers Construction in December 2017, the full price became $29,908,401.
Cademy Construction, the contractor who performed the dirt work for the school, incurred fines from the district for the project delay. Attorneys from Cademy, West Brothers Construction, and the architect Flowood-based JH&H are handling the legal negotiations, and the district is not yet aware of how much Cademy owes or if West Brothers owes as well, board president John S. Brown said.
The Partnership school’s progress meant the board was able to vote to reconfigure Armstrong Middle School for grades 8-9 and Starkville High School for grades 10-12, starting in the 2020-21 school year. The board then voted to rename AMS to Armstrong Junior High School. Both votes were unanimous.
The board also approved a contract between SOCSD, MSU and the city of Starkville for access to a wastewater treatment facility for the Partnership School. SOCSD will pay MSU a rate of $3.23 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater, as well as a connection fee of $20,166.67, according to the contract.
“It’s the same rate the city is charging the university,” board secretary Sumner Davis said. “We’re basically paying our share of what’s going into the city, so it’s not like we’re getting marked up on the price.”
Once the Partnership School is complete, the campus will also host space for MSU’s College of Education, where MSU students can observe classroom teaching and university faculty can be a resource for SOCSD teachers and administrators.
Current AMS Principal Julie Kennedy will lead the Partnership School, while Ra’mon Forbes, now an AMS assistant principal, will lead Armstrong Junior High.
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