By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education on Tuesday OK’d the design for the remodeling project and addition at North Middle School, and will put the project out for bids almost immediately.

The board designated 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8, as the deadline for bids. The board plans to award a contract for the project during its Aug. 12 regular meeting.

The plans resembled those of South and East middle schools, and didn’t hold any big surprises for the board, but the price may. The district’s architectural firm, Patterson, Latimer, Jones, Brannon, Denham Inc. in Joplin, estimated the cost for the 93,000-square-foot addition and renovation of the existing school at $20 million. That is $4.5 million more than the board originally budgeted for the project.

Annie Sharp, board president, said the district sold the bonds that are paying for the construction projects at a premium rate, so the board does have some additional funds to put toward the North Middle School project.

“But we’re hoping it comes in on target,” Sharp said.

The $20 million estimated price tag includes several alternate-bid projects, including an option to renovate the middle school’s existing basement, one to add a fence, and one that would turn an existing courtyard into a greenhouse.

The plans for North Middle School call for the existing 60,000-square-foot building to be stripped down to a shell. To that space, 93,000 square feet of new construction will be added for a total of 25 educational classrooms, seven special education rooms, new athletic facilities, a health room, more than twice as many computer labs as the old school, rooms for band, vocal and drama, larger art and family sciences rooms, and a new, larger auditorium.

The current auditorium will become a new media center and reading room, and the new auditorium will allow space for 730 audience seats and more than 100 students on stage. The new gymnasium will be big enough to hold two sporting events simultaneously. It will seat about 1,000 people.

“I know we’re over budget, but we’re solving problems that really haven’t been thought of before,” said Jim Moreland, one of the R-8 district’s architects.

This was the first board meeting for new superintendent C.J. Huff, who started with the district on July 1. Huff was not alarmed by the difference between the budgeted and estimated costs for the North Middle School renovation.

“There were no surprises; renovations always come in higher,” Huff said. “When we take it out to bid, we always estimate higher, but anticipate that they will come in lower. But if they don’t, we’ll just make some decisions.”

During the meeting Tuesday, Jim Latimer, another of the district’s architects, said the North Middle School building was structurally very sound, but some of the reasons that the renovation would be so expensive were contractors will have to scrap and replace the entire electrical system and much of the plumbing.

North Middle School is the third oldest school in Joplin, with a construction date of 1931. Sharp said the district decided to renovate the building rather than tear it down and rebuild because of the history it represents in Joplin.