The renovation of Milford Middle School is on time and under budget, according to Dr. Sara Hale, Chief Financial Officer at the district. The project, which has currently cost just over $62 million, should be completed in August 2025.
“There are change orders that we have so far. There are a couple for approval, this evening, but all in all, we’re right on track,” Hale said. “You can see that we’re planning for our playground and ordering computers, so we are moving along quickly.”
School board vice-president Matt Bucher applauded Hale for her due diligence in bringing the project in under budget.
“Looking at the numbers, I’ve observed that we’re probably about 80 percent through the project. So, we’re less than or approaching one percent in change orders and there’s no reason to believe that we’re going to do much more than that because we already popped the can open and we know what we’re dealing with the gut out and renovation,” Bucher said. “I would like the community to understand that on a project this size, and I’ve been involved in school construction and large building construction for more than 25 years, eight percent is the average number of the average monetary value against the full amount of a project this size which is around $50 million.”
Bucher continued, stating that the board had only approved a few hundred thousand in change orders which indicated that Hale had done a remarkable job keeping costs as low as possible.
“I also want to commend our great construction manager, Richard Y. Johnson and Sons,” Bucher said. “They’ve always run a tight ship and they’re kind of the end all and be all when it comes to large scale school construction in Delaware, and they really put their best foot forward got an excellent team. We lucked out. We got the best.”
Bucher pointed out that the due diligence on the project may have saved the district millions and good planning had kept the change order amount low. Since the renovation was for a 100-year-old building, the lack of change orders was impressive.
“I also want to add because I do this the same time every year that we didn’t ask for additional tax increase. We asked, they approved the referendum in 21 and we’ve got the debt service in the hockey stick graph and we’re kind of on the hump of the highest amount of the amortization of that debt,” Bucher said. “We haven’t asked for more monies for that reason for that school. So, obviously we aren’t getting a free school, but it’s the next best thing. We’re getting an extra building that’s not really costing the taxpayer any additional money so again, brilliant financial management from our financial officers.”
Four change orders were necessary at the board meeting. The first was for $32,084.00 for additional excavating as DelDOT requested additional changes to the shared use path surrounding the school The district will also be covering the cost of additional crosswalks near Reformation Lutheran Church and one by School Place.
The second was for $1,425.78 for additional concrete anchoring and the third was $5,980 for modifications to the gym roof. The final change order was for $128,415.52 for additional framing that was discovered in the older section of the building as they were working on the rebuild.
“These are unforeseen conditions, and they’re field verified conditions,” Bucher said. “I don’t see any controversy in any of these at all.”
The change orders were approved unanimously.
