GENEVA — Preliminary estimates for the construction of Geneva Platt R. Spencer Elementary and the Geneva Middle School are substantially over budget, putting some of the planned upgrades in jeopardy.

The news was delivered by R.P. Carbone project manager Rich

Dopatka, who gave the board of education Wednesday evening a list of items that may have to be dropped from the blueprints.

“We can turn those options into construction alternatives to help drive the estimate down to the budget,” Dopatka said. “There are items that we talked about early on that the district may have to change, drop, or pick up the cost.”

Among those items are an expanded elementary school kitchen, pitched roofing, an octagonal shaped library, bleachers in the gymnasium, and lighting monitors that bring natural light into windowless rooms.

“We added 360 additional square feet to the Spencer gymnasium for bleachers, plus we added additional parking spaces. These are items that the board may have to look at more closely,” Dopatka said.

District treasurer Kevin Lillie expressed concern about the district’s plan to utilize the Ohio School Facilities Commission’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program, which rewards and compensates school districts for using energy-efficient environmentally friendly designs and construction materials in new-school construction and the renovation of old schools. To qualify for the LEED for Schools designation, individual buildings must meet specifications for land use, water and energy efficiency, construction materials and indoor air. The level of certification depends on the number of criteria that are met during the design and construction of a building. Geneva schools will attempt to gain a LEED silver certification, with the requirement of 37 environmentally friendly points in each building.

Several of the construction options on the chopping block are rich in LEED points, Lillie said.

“We are still confident in our LEED status,” architect Bob Steines said. “We are still well over the mandated silver points, but we might not make gold status. We are going to have to watch those points carefully.”

Board of Education member Ed Brashear said the initial cost estimates may be overstated because of the once high value of aluminum and steel, which are now more affordable.

“When we go to bid in December or January, we will likely gain on that, no doubt about it,” Dopatka said. “The numbers will change as we go to bid, but we are not budgeting for the lowest bid. We have safeguards in place to protect us and you - mostly you - as much as possible,” he said.

Those safeguards include a 5 percent design contingency on both buildings, Dopatka said.

“It is important to realize that we did a job where all the options were considered alternates, and in the end the client received all their alternates. This is the nature of the beast,” he said.