MUSD district office construction scheduled for early 2009

While many local construction projects have either died or come to a screeching halt, one entity in the city of Maricopa continues to go full steam ahead, the Maricopa Unified School District.

The district’s governing board recently approved a maximum price of $6,047,409 for the construction of a new district office.

“When we put this project out to bid, we thought we would be able to build a 20,000 square-foot facility, but, thanks to some good planning and a poor market, we are going to be able to build a 38,000 square-foot facility and still come in $300,000 under budget,” said assistant to the superintendent Burnie Hibbard.

The new district office is going to be located adjacent to the Rotary community pool, and construction is scheduled to begin around the first of the year.

“We are hoping to have the office completed for the start of the 2009-2010 school year,” said Donald Brubaker, the district’s architect.

The new office will include space for district staff, a training/board room, kitchenette, technology center and reception areas.

The original construction plan would have supported a district of up to 10,000 students, but, with the extra square footage, the number of students this district office can support will exceed 15,000.

The district office is one of four projects for which bond money is still available. The other three are the transportation facility and phase 3b and 4 of the high school renovation and expansion.

Photo by Michael K. Rich