PROVO, Utah — At a Dec. 14 school board meeting, the Provo City School District approved a $12.9 million bid from Owasso, Okla.-based Hogan Construction to build a new Provost Elementary School facility. The replacement school will serve between 485 and 500 K-6 students. Construction is scheduled to begin in March.

Salt Lake City-based MHTN Architects will design the 63,500-square-foot building to meet the demands of today’s students who excel in interactive and technologically driven environments.

“It will be a more modern, up-to-date school that can handle 21^st century technology,” said Caleb Price, communications coordinator for Provo City School District.

A total of seven contractors submitted bids on the project. Spanish Fork, Utah-based Majestic Builders offered the lowest bid at $12.1 million, but was not selected as the company failed to include $650,000 in costs in their paperwork, according to information from the school board meeting.
The Provo City School District waited until November to accept bids because it expected costs to decrease drastically from the summer to winter months. Hogan Construction’s November bid was roughly $2.7 million less than it was in the summer as a result of value engineering, according to Price. Value engineering is a systematic method that determines the fluctuating cost of goods and services, however, there is still work being done to reduce the projected cost.

The existing Provost Elementary School was originally built in the 1950s and the school district determined it needed to be rebuilt in November 2014 after assessing seismic issues and the school’s outdated infrastructure. In addition, the school also lacked the necessary security and surveillance features, according to Price.

“It was more economical to rebuild the school than to repair it,” Price added.

The new elementary school is not designed to achieve LEED certification, but still strives to lower energy-related costs by allowing natural light to flow through the building and by incorporating LED lighting. Builders also matched the HVAC equipment based on the increased energy loads that will be required to operate them. In addition, the two-story steel structure that was used as the backbone of the school’s design was sourced and manufactured locally.

Construction will take place on the school’s existing green space. Students are currently attending classes in the original building, which will be demolished once the new one is completed in time for the 2018-2019 school year.