Robbie Ferris from SFL+a Architects discusses with county Board of Education members where they can lower costs in their budget to help get approval from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund grant. That grant would help fund construction of a new Hobbton High School.
Alyssa Bergey | Sampson Independent
Architect says sports fields may
have to go for grant approval
In order to strengthen the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund grant application to build a new Hobbton High School, the Sampson County Board of Education needs to make a few cuts — including eliminating plans for a new football field, soccer field and track as part of the new school.
That was the news brought to them by architects trying to assist the school board in getting the grant.
Robbie Ferris from SFL+a Architects was at Monday night’s board meeting to go over the proposed plan — building a new high school across the street from the existing high school and what was the best practices he recommends to get the grant approved.
Last week, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners agreed to put $4.2 million toward the project, which would help in terms of getting the grant approved. But Ferris told the board it still might not be enough.
“Maybe not so good that it’s a little bit short of what we need now given inflation and where costs are,” Ferris explained about the county’s contribution.
As the project budget stands now, it is $4.4 million over what they can afford, Ferris explained. Being over budget means that there is a higher chance of losing out on the grant again. Total cost to build the school is estimated at around $75 million, $62 million of which would come from the grant.
He explained that there were two things the board could do to bring the project back into the budget they have — applying for other grants and finding alternatives to help cut the costs and make it more in line with the budget.
“There are other grants out there,” he said. “For example, Golden Leaf grants cover furniture, equipment, technology, things like that. And as you can see from the budget, there was $1.6 million in technology and $2.2 million in furniture budgeted for the new school.”
The other thing Ferris mentioned as an alternate way to bring the project back into budget was not building a new football field, soccer field and track. He told the board they would still design it, but not build it with this project unless the bids for building it came in lower than expected, or they found the money to pay for it.
The money set aside for building the new fields and track is $2.8 million.
He mentioned that there would be other alternates — like what kind of flooring to use — that would be discussed at a later date, things to help save some money.
“I guess the big picture is that I do believe that even though we’re short right now based on what the commissioners have told you, I think we could proceed with this grant application (and) make the football, soccer and track an alternate,” Ferris said. “And I think there might be an opportunity for you to look to see if there are small amounts of money that you could pull from within.”
Board Chairmen Darryl Warren clarified that the proposal put in front of them would leave off the auditorium and keep the greenhouses and field house currently at Hobbton High School, which Ferris said was correct.
The board spoke a little more about eliminating the football and soccer fields and the track and how leaving that $2.8 million would help them bring the project back to the budget they had.
“I’d rather not have to (make the fields an alternate),” Ferris said. “I’d rather get it from day one, but I don’t see any other line items. Like for example, we can’t eliminate the site development, like the road coming in and the parking lot. We have to do that.”
He said as of right now, the only thing he could potentially see being cheaper is the $750,000 on ground improvement. He said they did the preliminary soil testing about six years ago and they “weren’t great,” but they would have to do more testing once they know where the building will be put.
“I’m just not comfortable taking that out of the budget right now given the fact that the last three high schools we did in this county, we had ground improvement on all three of them. Now, Hobbton is in a completely different part of the county, so hopefully we wouldn’t (have to) there.”
“Well, it’s not ideal, but I think in these circumstances, it at least allows us to get the application in so it can be considered for disposal,” board member Kim Schmidlin said.
Board member Jennifer Naylor then asked how many classrooms would be in the new building, and was told there would be 16 core classes in addition to all of the CTE classes that would fill up the entire first floor of classroom space.
“We have worked with (Superintendent) Dr. King in the past to make sure we’re incorporating the appropriate programs that you have now and are preparing for not only some growth in in the future, but as well as preparing for future programs as well,” Ferris said.
The deadline to send in the application for the grant is Sept. 13.
The first grant application, submitted earlier this year, was denied.
You can reach Alyssa Bergey at 910-249-4617. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.