The Coweta County Board of Education approved a maximum price proposal submitted by the construction manager of the county’s newest elementary school, on Jim Starr Road in northern Coweta County.

The new school, located on the northeastern corner of Jim Starr Road and Tommy Lee Cook Road, is scheduled to be completed for use by August, 2009, for the 2009-2010 school year.

Meeting in special session, the school board approved a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) of $16.1 million for Jim Starr Road. The board met at 6:30 p.m. June 2, at the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts in Newnan, before the annual teacher retirement dinner.

The GMP figure represents the maximum price to complete the school project for Torrance Construction, the Construction Manager At-Risk. It includes base construction prices per received subcontractor bids, construction management fees, alternates and contingencies.

The school will be funded by revenues from Coweta County’s 2007-2012 Special Local Option Sales Tax for schools, with $4 million in possible growth funding available from the state of Georgia.

Torrance, a LaGrange contracting company, was awarded the school project’s Construction Manager At-Risk contract for the Jim Starr Road school earlier in 2008. The company was responsible for completing renovations at Ruth Hill Elementary School and current renovations at Moreland Elementary School.

The Construction Manager At-Risk method allows for the construction manager to solicit subcontract bids. The GMP represents the full project estimate following the solicitation of subcontractor bids by Torrance Construction.

The Jim Starr Road school will be built to 120,000 square feet and will accommodate an estimated 875 students, similar in size to the recent Welch Elementary School.

It will be the first Coweta County elementary school in many years to be built with two stories. The front entrance of the school will appear as a one-story façade. The second, lower story will open to the rear of the school, similar to Atkinson Elementary School in Newnan.

The school system’s recent 9th-grade campus additions were two-story buildings as well.

Monday’s approval of the GMP will allow grading work on the site to begin in June, with construction to begin immediately thereafter.

Other school system construction work this summer will include the completions of the ongoing Moreland Elementary School renovations and the renovations and conversion of the East Coweta Middle school gymnasium to a band, chorus and classroom facility.

Classrooms will be painted at Newnan High, Thomas Crossroads, Arnall Middle and Western Elementary this summer. Floor covering projects at Atkinson, Canongate, Jefferson Parkway and parts of Newnan High School will be completed this summer. Newnan High School and Evans Middle School will also have roofing and HVAC work this summer.

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