The price of Hanford's third high school has again increased. Trustees of the Hanford Joint Union High School District approved at their Tuesday meeting a change order that reflected a $31,252 increase in the cost of building Sierra Pacific High School, which is set to open in Fall 2009. The increase, like much of the cost of the school's construction, is to be paid from local and state bond funds.

The change order is the second so far on the project; an increase of $325,871.99 was approved earlier this year. The project cost is now set at $49,479,253.33.

The $31,252 increase stems from a compilation of costs that weren't included in original plans for the project. Provisions for electrical wall finishes had to be added in two classrooms, at the cost of $9,260, and some ductwork had to be rerouted to avoid a structural framing component, at the price of $6,623. Other added costs in the change order included alternate routing of a roof drain, extending of a manhole to connect to an existing storm drain and other mismatches between the site and the project plans.

The change order also reflected a credit of $3,600 for the deletion of some choir robe storage closets from plans.

John Draxler, district board president, said his "biggest beef" was with the architects on the project, Darden Architects, and any oversights they made that are costing more money to the district.

Cheryl Silva, district assistant superintendent of business services, said she is asking for accountability from the architects and engineers for each person responsible for each added cost.

"We will keep on top of it," Silva said to trustees. "They understand that we don't like change orders and we will be asking them to absorb some of the costs."

Silva said when she initially presented this change order to trustees at their Aug. 26 meeting that she expects smaller price change orders from this point forward.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2424.

(Sept. 10, 2008)