Construction is set to begin within a few days on the new Fox C-6 High School, to be built on the Seckman Campus adjoining the Seckman Elementary and Junior High schools.
The school board recently chose L.A. Schaefer Construction Co. Inc. of Chesterfield to the job. The company’s bid of $14,000,408 was the lowest received and nearly $1.7 million less than the school district had expected to pay for the project.
Bob Schaefer Jr. of L.A. Schaefer said work was scheduled to begin May 1, with expected completion in the fall of 1997.
The construction company has built two other facilities for the Fox C-6 School District – Rickman Auditorium and Lone Dell Elementary. Schaefer said his company, which has been in business since 1929, has built more than 65 different school facilities in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
“We are extremely excited about being involved with this project since we do specialize in school construction,” Schaefer said.
Richard Simpson, acting Fox C-6 superintendent, said the three lowest bids were within 5 percent of one another. Simpson credited the complete architectural drawings by William B. Ittner Inc. for the low bids.
Simpson said the savings would allow the district to add some improvements to the high school plan.
One of these projects will be to move the guidance office to the second floor, thereby adding two more rooms on the first floor where the office had originally been planned. Also, the cafeteria will be enlarged, additional landscaping will now be affordable and a stage curtain will be added.
The district will also squirrel away some money.
“Even though we can go a little farther with our money, we’re holding back for something to come up that will cost more than anticipated,” Simpson said. “But we know it is cheaper to do what we want now.”
Once the project is completed, Fox will have two fully operational high schools.
Simpson said that when classes begin for the 1997 school year, he “hopes to open the (new) building with 1,400 (students).” He said ideally both high schools will eventually have equal enrolment, of about 1,500 apiece.
The plan for the first year, Simpson said, is to start the new school with ninth- 10th- and 11th-graders.
The district does not yet know which geographical areas will be served by which school.
“I can’t answer anything about dividing lines at this point because of the construction of new homes in the area,” Simpson said.
Plans for the new school were prepared with input from district employees, students, residents and board members. The school will have a 5,000-square-foot open common area, a dining room with an outdoor patio, two gymnasiums, an elevator, a track, baseball field and a football field complete with lights.
The district is also in the process of reconstructing the observatory that was already on site and the school will be wired for future computer use, Simpson said.
“We’re trying to make it a complete high school, making this the largest building project C-6 has ever done,” Simpson said.
The school is being built with proceeds of a tax measure passed by voters in 1995.
Simpson emphasized that the present C-6 high school is not being ignored. Renovations include a new gym floor, new rubberized track, a new ceiling, skylights, and lighting for the second and third wings.
Simpson said the school board has not yet decided on a name for the new school. But considering the obvious, he said, “it all points to Seckman High School.”
Simpson said he did not yet know how many new hires it will take to open the new high school.
“Some (employees) will move from the present school to the new school and we’ll need to hire more cooks, secretaries, administration people and some new teachers,” he said.