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Hoover school board weighs cost of high school theater upgrades

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Design concept courtesy of Latha

The Hoover school board is trying to figure out how to proceed with proposed theater upgrades at Hoover and Spain Park high schools after cost estimates came in higher than the amount of money available from a state bond issue.

A proposed renovation of the theater at Spain Park High School is not expected to be a problem, but the bigger concern is the money needed for a new 1,276-seat theater proposed to replace an older and smaller theater at Hoover High.

The initial plan was to spend $11 million on the new theater at Hoover High and $1 million on renovations at the larger and newer Spain Park High theater, but the Spain Park renovation budget has been increased to $2 million, and the Hoover High budget was reduced to $9 million. And after fees for an architect, engineer and other state fees are taken out, that would leave only about $8.25 million for actual construction at Hoover High, said Matt Wilson, the operations coordinator for Hoover City Schools, in a report to the school board during a work session Monday.

Lathan Architects estimates it would cost $14.5 million to build the type of facility that has been requested, Wilson said.

School board member Amy Tosney, an avid supporter of the arts, said the school board needs to determine what the “non-negotiables” are when it comes to a new theater.

She feels very strongly about the number of seats needed because the theater should be able to seat at least two parents for each member of the concert band, and the stage has to be large enough to seat the entire band, she said.

She gets very frustrated because she goes to much smaller cities that have nicer high school theaters, and she doesn’t understand why Hoover High — the largest high school in the state — can’t have a nice theater that can accommodate a reasonable size crowd for the size of the arts groups that are using it, she said.

“This is 30 years in the making. It is time,” Tosney said.

The new theater built at Thompson High School in Alabaster cost $10.5 million, and construction costs are only going up, she said.

School board members on Monday asked Wilson to work with the architectural firm to develop some options for the board to consider.

The Hoover school system is getting a total of $15.8 million from a $1.25 billion state bond issue for school construction, and the money must be spent within three years.

In addition to the theater work, the Hoover school board plans to spend $2.8 million for partial roof replacements at Green Valley, Greystone and South Shades Crest elementary schools and the school system’s operations/transportation facility and $1 million to upgrade the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at Gwin Elementary.

The school system plans to go ahead and proceed with work on the partial roof replacements at Green Valley and the operations/transportation facility but will delay roof replacement work at Greystone and South Shades Crest another year because the cost of shingles has skyrocketed and they are less available right now, Wilson said. For example, the school system had budgeted about $800,000 for the Greystone job, but the most recent estimate came back at almost $1.7 million, Wilson said.

He thinks it’s prudent to hold off on two of the larger jobs in hopes that prices will come back down, he said.

Meanwhile, the school district has several projects already underway. The 18-classroom addition at Berry Middle School is on schedule, within budget and expected to be completed in June, Chief Financial Officer Michele McCay said.

A $1 million renovation of the oldest part of the old Bluff Park School also is underway and scheduled for completion in August, and several heating, ventilation and air conditioning projects across the district are scheduled for completion in late 2021, McCay said.

School officials also are working with the contractor and architect that handled the conversion of Riverchase Middle School into the Riverchase Career Connection Center to resolve problems with the roof.

The roof has a vented deck that should not have been painted, but it was, Wilson said. The Goodwyn Mills & Cawood architectural firm should have caught that, he said. Fixing the problem is not easy and likely will cost about $500,000, he said. He will be meeting with the contractor and architect to discuss the issue, he said.

Several capital projects are planned for this summer. Those include the replacement of the windows at Green Valley, Shades Mountain and Bluff Park elementary schools, a cooling tower replacement at Bluff Park Elementary, the replacement of a chiller and cooling tower at Simmons Middle School and bathroom upgrades and flooring and painting projects at various schools.

McCay discussed numerous other capital projects that likely will need to be done in the future, including:

None of those projects have yet been approved by the school board.

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