MEH Middle School Progresses Quickly Under New Process

By Darien Bates

It was a little less than a year ago when new Falls Church School Superintendent Lois Berlin stepped into the School Board offices at 803 W. Broad St. , inheriting from predecessor Mary Ellen Shaw a variety of responsibilities, including a large hole in the ground, the beginnings of a yet unnamed middle school.  

Two weeks ago, the impressive words “ Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School ” were applied to the façade of the three-story building now standing in place of that hole. Along with announcing the official name of the school, that new insignia also heralds the ever-nearing completion of a school project that has gone surprisingly smoothly, something the administration has attributed to the use of recently enacted legislation that allows private developers to get involved in public construction projects.  

Overseeing a construction project as large as a new school would be a difficult task for anyone, considering all the things that can go wrong, but for a new superintendent coming into a small school system lacking the kind of infrastructure that many larger jurisdictions have in place to assist with development, the job appeared ominous when Dr. Berlin started last July.  

But rather than the usual problems that plague construction projects and give administrators headaches – cost overruns, missed deadlines and burdensome oversight – Berlin said that the construction of the middle school has been surprisingly easy. So far the construction is expected to be completed at or before the original deadline, and is at least $1 million under budget.  

“At this point there’s not much left that can go wrong,” said Bob Jones, construction manager for Construction Dynamics Group, an organization representing the interests of the school throughout the building process.   Much of the success, Berlin said, is due to the preparation of her predecessor, Mary Ellen Shaw and the partnership with Clark Advisors, a private developer represented by Jamie Martin, a George Mason High School alum and father to two students currently in the Falls Church schools.  

The partnership, something new for Falls Church developments, was made possible under the Public Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002 (PPEA 2002). Modeled on the Virginia Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995, the act attempts to take advantage of money and time savings seen as inherent in private sector development.  

The way the act works is a public body on the local or state level can solicit proposals from developers for a certain project, detailing specific needs and constraints. Developers then create plans based around a guaranteed maximum cost, which the school system or other governing body chooses from.

Unlike the traditional bidding system where specific contracts for materials and services are decided during the bidding process and where the choice of contractor is based on the lowest price, all that’s decided in a PPEA is which plan is the best, taking into account the past work of the developer, references and of course, costs. Berlin said that the format is much more like a job interview, which takes into account more than just a salary, but also credibility.  

After the decision was made by the Falls Church schools to work with Clark Advisors, the two groups sat down and discussed in even greater detail the specifics of the project. To make sure they were well equipped to handle the negotiations, they enlisted the help of CDG to makes sure they got everything they needed for a fair price.  

Berlin said that the close communication and detailed planning has helped ensure that the school will fit the needs of the teachers and students for years to come.  

“Whenever you’re building a school, you want form to follow function,” she said, emphasizing aspects of the design like teacher resource rooms which could help support a larger teaching staff and student body in the future.   The PPEA has also helped the schools gain greater control over the subcontracting process. Since the specific services and materials weren’t decided in the bidding process, the Clark Advisors and the schools were able to decide together who and what to use, as long as everything remained below that guaranteed maximum cost.  

In the PPEA format the schools gain a certain amount of protection. Anything that causes the costs to rise above the maximum cost the schools are not responsible for, unless the overrun is due to the schools changing its mind on a part of the project. It means the developer is responsible for any unforeseen problems, as well as keeping the project on schedule.  

With the construction at Henderson Middle School there have been surprisingly few of those unforeseen problems. The one issue was the condition of the site, which was known to be a substandard site prior to the first shovel in the ground. After the digging started it was discovered the dirt was even worse than expected, with an enormous amount of debris, everything from buried tree stumps to an old car.  

Fortunately, the developer had budgeted extra money in the bid because of the worries about the ground, and the problem was handled in stride, as they rearranged the building schedule to handle the slight delay.   Another reason for the project remaining under budget was due to the relatively quick approval process and the early purchase of materials, they were able to buy most of the necessary materials and services before a lot of the cost escalation over the past year, saving as much as 25% on the constructions costs.  

Already the schools are trying to harness the apparent success of the middle school project in the high school, as renovation began on the west wing of the school last week for the purpose of adding to and expanding on the school’s science labs, a resource that has been lacking for some time. Most of the school’s existing science labs are smaller than safety standards recommend to protect against dangerous crowding.  

The renovations will also include some minor cosmetic changes like reorganizing the classrooms and moving out four of the 10 trailers that have served as external classrooms for years.   Principal Robert Snee said that one of the most important parts of the renovation will be simply coordinating the subject areas rather than how they are now, where English and Math classes can be found throughout the school, seemingly without rhyme or reason.  

While a relatively minor project compared with the middle school construction, the renovation needs to be completed by Labor Day, before students return in the fall. Because of this, remaining on schedule is crucial.  

Later this year, Clark Developers will be working with the schools on renovations to Mt. Daniel, though the project has faced delays due to protests from people living around the site and slow approval from Fairfax County, the jurisdiction in which the school is located.