Gilroy
– Plan B it is.
In a break from tradition, Gilroy High School seniors will
graduate on the junior practice fields instead of in the football
stadium because of delays in awarding a contract for a new
artificial turf for the football field.
Gilroy – Plan B it is.
In a break from tradition, Gilroy High School seniors will graduate on the junior practice fields instead of in the football stadium because of delays in awarding a contract for a new artificial turf for the football field.
Already operating under a tight construction schedule, the school was prepared for the worst. And Thursday night at the Gilroy Unified School District’s school board meeting, Charlie Van Meter, Gilroy’s director of facilities planning development and construction, announced that any hope for holding graduation on the football field was over.
“The bids came in considerably higher than the district anticipated,” said Gary Corlett, GUSD’s construction manager. The district estimated the total cost for the project from the contractor to the engineering, to be about $1.4 million, said Jan Jensen, construction manager for the project. However, simply the cost for the contractors was out of the price range, she said. Four contractors bid on the project.
She said the high discrepancy was due to estimated overtime costs if construction were completed before graduation.
After an engineering analysis and a tightening of material usage, GUSD building officials anticipate a cost reduction of at least $60,000.
Rebidding occurs April 19, and following board approval, construction begins April 22.
As far as plan B goes, GHS assistant principal Greg Camacho–Light is on it.
“I feel better that we know now,” he said. “It’s a head start. We have 6,000 chairs identified so they can be brought in for seating, and I’m already working on the design plan.”
Usually seniors do not help with the actual setting up of graduation. And like the setting – this year is different: Seniors will be asked to be a part of it.
“Obviously this is a crazy time in their lives,” Camacho–Light said, “but I’m hoping we can get some student help.”
The design is theatrical. Chairs will not just be placed as if sitting in an auditorium he said.
“I want people to walk in and say, ‘Wow, this is even better.'”
