During the summer of 2002, the Scottsdale Unified School District was engaged in a significant amount of construction and renovation work at the schools. Work included Deficiency Correction projects, funded and managed by the Arizona School Facilities Board (SFB) to meet state minimum adequacy standards, 1997 Bond projects, and Bond Offset projects, which are the additional projects the District has been able to undertake as a result of state funding of projects originally budgeted within the 1997 Bond. Work was completed as necessary to ensure that all school facilities opened as scheduled and were ready for the start of school.

SFB Performs Deficiency Corrections Work At 20 Sites
Deficiency Corrections projects are being contracted directly by the SFB and managed by their project management consultant, Jacobs/Chanen. This summer, SFB Deficiency Corrections work was performed at 20 different school sites in Scottsdale. Summer work focused on air conditioning, roofing, window replacements, replacing old galvanized water lines with copper pipe, and the design of the new Sierra Vista Academy. Progress on some of the SFB's Deficiency Corrections projects has been slower than anticipated. The SFB's process for approving projects, completing design, bidding work, and awarding contracts is relatively lengthy. A couple of SFB projects were held up by bid protests or threats of bid protests. Originally bid last winter, the reroofing projects at Arcadia and Chaparral were delayed while the SFB and the Registrar of Contractors evaluated a bid protest. This work has recently been re-bid. The SFB expects to make an award in the very near future. But in the meantime, the summer window to perform the work with a minimum impact to students and staff was lost. SFB work was also delayed as a result of a receiving no bids on a Deficiency Corrections project that includes work at Chaparral, Coronado, Hohokam, Kiva, Navajo, Pima, Tonalea, and Yavapai. Some of the work included in this bid was to have been completed this summer but will now have to be done evenings and weekends. At other schools including Cocopah, summer work continued right up to the first day of school in order to decrease the amount of work left to be done at the occupied campuses. SFB Deficiency Corrections projects will continue this year with the new sewer lines at Cocopah that will enable the school to abandon the on-site septic system and tie into the city sewer system, fire alarm upgrades, additional roofing replacements, and other miscellaneous projects at many schools throughout Scottsdale. The most significant continuing SFB project is the new Sierra Vista Academy school scheduled to start construction this fall with completion next summer for the start of the school year.

1997 Bond Projects Include Replacement Of Portables, New Cafeterias
Ongoing 1997 Bond projects include the replacement of old portable classrooms with permanent construction at Cheyenne Traditional School, the new elementary classrooms at Copper Ridge, and new cafeteria buildings at Mohave and Cocopah Middle Schools. Both of the cafeteria projects include the renovation and remodeling of the old cafeteria buildings into science labs. The new cafeterias at Mohave and Cocopah were complete for the start of school. Remodeling of the science labs, which was started near the end of the school year last spring, is still underway with completion expected within the next month. The new permanent building at Cheyenne includes four regular classrooms, a science lab, a common area, restrooms, and a teacher work area. This building was completed as scheduled for the start of school. The new elementary classroom buildings at Copper Ridge will be complete in September and will be occupied over fall break. In the meantime, the elementary school continues to share the middle school facilities. Work on the 1997 Bond high school renovations is complete except for the Coronado auditorium and punch list items at all the high schools. Completion of the renovation work at the Coronado auditorium was delayed when the contractor encountered asbestos in the plaster ceiling where new stage lights were being installed. The asbestos containing materials were tested and removed. New plaster has been installed. The auditorium is expected to be ready for use within a couple weeks.

Fast-tracking Maximizes 1997 Bond Funds
The state, through Students FIRST, provided funding for many of the renovation and repair projects that SUSD had anticipated doing as part of the 1997 Bond. As a result of this additional funding from the state, about $14 million of 1997 Bond funds were made available to meet other needs. The Bond Oversight Committee recommended and the Governing Board approved the use of these funds to rebuild Supai Middle School, to replace rather than renovate the balance of old classroom building at Tavan (about half of the old classroom buildings were replaced in the original 1997 Bond project.), and to build a new band room to District standards at Chaparral. These projects were all planned, designed, and constructed within a very short timeline in order to be ready for the start of school. This was done through phased permitting (or fast-tracking) and by utilizing a delivery system referred to as Construction Management at Risk. While used in the private sector for many years, Construction Management at Risk has only recently been available to school districts and other government entities in Arizona. These projects represent the first that Scottsdale District has done under this alternative construction delivery method. It has proven to be very successful. All of the projects, in spite of the near impossible time lines, were completed on time and within budget.