Cuts to save money on high schools would cost WFISD big dollars, architect says

An architect involved in the construction of Wichita Falls ISD's two new high schools laid out a bleak scenario for efforts to cut costs now in the projects, slated to be completed in time for the 2024-2025 school year.

David Potter, the contract-phase administration architect, gave a grim estimate to the School Board on the price tag for "value engineering."

“To save $10 million dollars, you would probably give away $3 to $4 million dollars of that," said Potter, president of DP4 Consult. "And so it would actually end up costing you . . . $13 or $14 million dollars to save $10 million dollars.”

More:WFISD to consider reducing costs again for new high schools

On Friday, Potter contacted the Times Record News to say that he wanted to clarify that he was aiming to convey that an attempt to save $10 million on the schools through value engineering at this point would not result in obtaining that entire amount back in savings.

Instead, the savings would be in the range of $6 million to $7 million, Potter said.

After Tuesday's meeting, Potter said estimates show Wichita Falls Memorial High School is about 30 percent completed, and Wichita Falls Legacy High School is about 25 percent finished.

At-large Trustee Katherine McGregor was one of two School Board members who requested an item on Tuesday's meeting agenda to consider reducing costs for the new schools.

During the meeting, she began the discussion by saying she is concerned that the district is not continually looking at saving money on the schools.

She said WFISD is using $20 million in federal COVID relief funds, intended to boost education or help with safety issues, to build the new schools.

"I just think we need to try to evaluate where we can save money," McGregor said.

WFISD is using $20 million of COVID relief funds to pay salaries so the district can shift that amount of money into the new schools.

Rising inflation and supply chain issues drove up the cost of building Wichita Falls Memorial High School and Wichita Falls Legacy High School, leading to value engineering, modified plans for the schools and a reallocation of some funds.

More:How far along is construction on WFISD's new high schools?

Place 1 Trustee Dale Harvey asked Potter what percentage of contracts have been negotiated for the schools.

Potter, whose company is a consultant to school design firm Huckabee, said as of Tuesday morning, about 98 percent of the contracts have been signed, orders are going out for materials and some orders have been delivered.

Harvey asked him if it would be difficult to renegotiate contracts already agreed to and how it would play out if the district chose to question them.

Potter said fees for docking, penalties and shipping costs would all play into renegotiations, and value engineering always costs the owner of the project money.

But this far along, the loss is even worse, Potter said.

"They're not going to give you back their overhead. They're not going to give you back things that are already built into the overall project. They’ll give you what the pieces are," he said.

Harvey asked if inflation had flattened out.

Potter said it has let up a little in some areas, but the projects are not out of the woods when it comes to inflation.

“With a high school, we have so many components, we don't have a good feel for inflation, totally across the board," he said.

Potter said just getting the projects build is a full-time job, so those involved in the project don't try to figure out what could be taken out when things are already in process.

“But occasionally things happen that we see a spot to save money,” Potter said.

For instance, there was a savings of about $150,000 on the lift station for Memorial with some help from the city of Wichita Falls, he said. That money will go back into contingency funds to be spent wherever WFISD decides to spend it.

Potter agreed to provide trustees with a regular summary of dollars going back into contingency funds.

McGregor said getting an answer to the question of how to save more money on the new schools had dragged out for a long time.

"But if we came to a point where we said, 'My gosh, we don’t have enough money,' I bet there would be a way to value engineer something that wasn’t going to cost us more to cut it than it’s going to cost us to save it," she said.

McGregor said the schools are costing a lot of money, and everyone is excited that they're going to be great schools.

"But I think we need to be … very cautious on where we’re spending the money so we have more money to spend in the classroom," she said.

The School Board approved a maximum guaranteed price tag of about $282.7 million late last year for modified construction plans to build Memorial High at at 6422 Seymour Highway and Legacy High at 3003 Henry S. Grace Freeway.

On Nov. 3, 2020, voters approved a bond proposition to buy land and construct the new high schools. They passed a second proposition including athletic and recreational facilities for both new high schools on May 1, 2021. The total bond package was $290 million.

Besides $20 million in pandemic relief funds, WFISD officials' new plan called for using $4 million in district funds for the new high schools. Previously plans called for using the $4 million to bring athletic facilities up to competition level.

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Architect: Cuts to WFISD high schools would have steep price tag