July 2015 Deadline May Be Slipping Away for Center of 'Community' Life
The Emery Unified School District has released a document that is qualifying the long promised July 2015 completion date of the new high school part of the Center of 'Community' Life project ready to begin construction on San Pablo Avenue, a date that has stood without qualifications for years. The document, called the 'Progress on Key ECCL Project Milestones', is the first public softening of previously promised iron-clad completion date commitments for the high school at the beleaguered schools/community center. With the release of the document, the School District wants the public to know that the July date, set several years ago, is now a "target" and is subject to contingencies including "approvals" and "steel delivery time lines".
The new asterisks attached to the July 2015 high school completion date represent the second time the District has adjusted the ECCL construction schedule. Two years ago, the elementary school and community center part of the project were pushed back to a June 2016 completion date. Those two components, were originally also scheduled to be completed by July 2015.
The pool and gymnasium are scheduled to be completed by the end of June 2015 and the District has so far attached no contingencies with those finish dates.
Toxic soil remediation work on site needs to be completed before the high school construction work can begin, a digging job that started May 12th. Although the schedule shows the contractor completing the soil removal and replacement with uncontaminated fill on June 1st, at a presentation made at tonight's Council meeting, an ECCL construction manager said that soil remediation work would now not likely be finished until mid June.
The tightening schedule means the site prep work, the pool & gym completion along with building a new high school, ready for move-in will all need to be done in a year, an extremely ambitious date. But it's a date the temporary Superintendent of the Schools, John Sugiyama says is still doable, "My understanding is the July 2015 date [for the high school] is still solid" he told the Tattler today.
The District has moved the high school over to the abandoned Oakland Santa Fe Elementary School site on the Emeryville border for two years at a cost of $1.5 million and that lease is up in July 2015 even though Emery has secured an extra six additional months rental as a contingency.
To be able to admit students to the new high school for start of school year in 2015, the building needs to be finished and the site ready by that July owing to furniture set up and technicalities.
Who could have guessed?
ReplyDeleteWhat a laugh? The whole Project remains an ill conceived, pioneering project, and is likely to die of its own weight. By the way, where is Dick Kassis? He started all this nonsense and spending. And, what about the Others who have fled? We taxpayers are the suckers who are left holding the "Bag".
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