Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Everything is on schedule for Prince Edward Elementary. That was part of the update given Wednesday, Sept. 4 about progress with the school’s renovation. Speaking to the Prince Edward School Board, Stephen Halsey of Moseley Architects detailed what’s currently happening, the plans for later this month and when we’ll see actual construction starting.

The first of the mobile classrooms, where some students will stay during renovations, arrived back on Aug. 24. More keep getting delivered, with the remainder expected to arrive no later than Sept. 20. As of Sept. 4, six classroom units and four toilet units had been installed, with contractors connecting them to utilities. That includes plumbing, power, data systems and other safety systems, as well as linking them to fire alarms.

“We’re still tracking for having (that) project complete in early October,” said Halsey. He’s the head of Moseley Architects’ K-12 group, which handles school projects. The company had been hired last fall to develop construction plans and coordinate work for the renovation. With that project expected to be complete by early October, the goal would be to get the classrooms organized over fall break, with teachers moving over needed materials. Then, third and fourth grade students would be transferred over Oct. 16.

“No major hiccups so far,” Halsey said of the work. “It’s been pretty smooth.”

Prince Edward Elementary construction

So the mobile units are being installed and we have a date set for kids to move in. What about the actual construction project? There’s several things that still need to happen in that case. Halsey confirmed that his team had turned over a copy of the renovation plans to the Prince Edward County building official. County staff will look over them, flag any concerns as needed and then a final set of the drawings will be released at the close of bidding on the project. That’s the current step, getting this renovation out to bid and collecting proposals. It was advertised to contractors on Aug. 28. To date, there have been four contractors reviewing the project and considering a bid. They include Kenbridge Construction, which is handling the installation of the mobile units; Raleigh-based Cooper Tacio; English Construction out of Lynchburg and Winchester-based Howard Shockey & Sons.

“It’s a really good group of general contractors,” Halsey said. “Nobody we would be concerned with if they ended up getting the job.”

There will be a pre-bid conference held on site at Prince Edward Elementary on Monday, Sept. 16. Then contractors will be free to submit bids, which will be opened on Thursday, Sept. 26. The Moseley group will go over those bids and make a recommendation to the Prince Edward School Board during their Wednesday, Oct. 9 meeting. The board could make a decision that night, with work starting later in October. The construction work is expected to take a bit more than three years, stretching from Oct. 2024 to March 2027.

What about money?

One question raised by school board member J. Harvey Tackett was about funding. Will the project come in at the current estimate, he asked.

“We’re hopeful,” Halsey said. “We’ve had some new construction projects bid in Henrico and Chesterfield that suggest we should be in the ballpark. We’ve seen some very competitive bids in Central Virginia over the last four to five months.”

That current estimate stands at between $43 to $44 million. As to where the funding for that comes from, most will be borrowed by Prince Edward County, with some coming through grant funding. And it’s worth pointing out that while this is the current plan, county staff continue to apply for grants, in hopes of reducing what’s owed. For example, back in May the county received an $8.655 million grant from the Virginia Capital Projects Fund. That leaves roughly $35 million for Prince Edward to pay for, if the estimate stays the same.

The plan for that remaining money involves Prince Edward borrowing up to $25 million at a 3% interest rate from the Virginia Literacy Loan Fund, to be paid back over a 20-year period. Then the county will go to the Virginia Public School Authority this fall, to finance the rest. That loan will be based on the market rate at the time, with a term of up to 25 to 30 years to pay back.