The Miami Trace Local School District continues to make progress on the early design of its new high school.
SHP Leading Design, the architect for the project, has submitted the first draft Program of Requirements (POR) document to the Ohio Facility Construction Commission (OFCC) for review and approval. This document is a template that helps determine the specific square footage allotted to all of the various spaces within the building, such as the academic core, special needs, arts, music, vocational education, athletic, administrative offices, kitchen/cafeteria, and mechanical equipment, according to district officials.
Once approved by the OFCC, this document will help guide the district in developing a more detailed building floor plan to present to staff for their review and comments. Currently, the new building is “on target” in terms of the size allotted by the overall project template, at approximately 160,000 square feet. As a comparison, the Miami Trace Elementary School is 141,000 square feet, the middle school is 91,000 square feet, and the current high school is approximately 127,000 square feet.
A 3.9-mill, 37-year bond issue passed at the special election last May, setting in motion the building design phase for a new high school, which will be located on a nearly 60-acre piece of farmland to the east of the football stadium. The new high school will replace the existing high school that opened in 1962.
On Jan. 15, officials from OFCC and the district met with four construction firms to review their bids and proposals for the high school project. These firms were pared from an initial pool of 11 firms that submitted proposals for the project. The four finalists were Summit Construction, Smoot Construction, Setterlin Construction and Ruscilli Construction.
After listening to their project ideas and reviewing the specific staffing and fee proposals from each firm, the firms were ranked according to an OFCC-mandated rubric, according to district officials. On Jan. 20, it was announced that Columbus-based Ruscilli Construction was selected for the project.
Ruscilli has many years of experience in school construction with over $3 billion of past experience, and a solid partnership with the design firm, SHP Leading Design.
“We are extremely excited to have Ruscilli as a partner on our project,” said Miami Trace Business Manager Bill Franke.
Ruscilli’s engineering and estimating team will soon begin to work in tandem with the SHP design team to review the design, which will allow the project to be constructed within budget and on schedule. Once the final design is solidified, Ruscilli will begin constructing the new school.
“At the present time, we are confident that early site preparations such as drainage tile, site electric services, water and sewer lines, and building and parking lot pads will begin in late summer 2016,” said Franke. “You will see the building begin to rise from the ground in the early spring of 2017.”
The goal is to open the facility to students in January 2019.
