Calvert County Director of School Construction George R. Leah Jr. gave county officials a three-dimension look at what a new and enlarged Northern High School (NHS) could look like once the project is completed. Leah’s presentation was part of a work session with the Calvert County Commissioners Tuesday, Nov. 26 on public school-related capital projects planned for fiscal year (FY) 2015.
County officials are hoping to ultimately obtain $32.6 million in state funding for the NHS project, which will cost an estimated $67.3 million. Leah reported the project is in the schematic phase, a component in which the state does not participate. The architect working on the project, according to Leah, has presented a new concept that will not disrupt instruction during the construction phase. “The whole campus is going to change,” said Leah, who showed renderings of the revised plan, which locates the new portion of NHS east of the current building and includes a three-story section.
The renovated high school will be equipped with a geothermal heating and cooling system and will be constructed to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.
Leah said he hopes to put the construction project out to bid next year with the building phase starting in April 2015 and completion anticipated in 2018.
Capital Projects Analyst Julie Paluda presented two graphs of the county’s debt affordability projections during the years the NHS project is to occur. One model showed the county remaining below its 9.5 percent threshold, assuming the Dominion Cove Point Expansion project occurs and Calvert County realizes general fund revenues starting in FY 2018. The second debt affordability model shows the county exceeding the threshold in FY 2019 by 0.5 percent if the liquefied natural gas export project doesn’t happen. Commissioner Evan K. Slaughenhoupt Jr. [R] asked if that situation would put the NHS project “in jeopardy.”
Paluda noted that by the time the FY 2015 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is finalized, the county should know the status of the Cove Point project.
Commissioner Gerald W. “Jerry” Clark [R] indicated that whatever happens with the Dominion project, the CIP will be adjusted.
In a memo to the commissioners, Paluda stated the county’s first priority for the FY 2015 CIP public school projects “is the appropriation of the remaining state funding for Mutual Elementary School’s Phase II systematic work.” The project involves fire suppression and internal work and $355,497 is being requested from the Interagency Committee on School Construction.
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