When construction bids come in over budget, school districts face a familiar set of difficult choices: reduce scope, delay the project or find additional funding. A session at the MD ASBO Annual Spring Conference will present a different approach, drawing on the Downsville Pike Elementary School project in Washington County, Maryland, where all eight competitive bids recently came in under budget and all 12 design alternates were accepted.
Jennifer Lyon, AIA, and Michael Blake, AIA, K-12 principals at Moseley, will lead the session on Tuesday, May 19, at 9:00 a.m. Their panel includes Matt Burton, supervisor of construction for the facilities department at Washington County Public Schools.
"Budget pressure is not unique to this project or this district. We hope the strategies we used on Downsville Pike Elementary School give attendees a framework they can bring back to their own projects." <p class="testimonial-name">Jennifer Lyon</p>
A Four-Part Approach
The presentation covers four strategies the team applied to the 83,300-square-foot elementary school:
- Program clarity was established through an educational specification committee that right-sized spaces and identified which program elements were fixed versus adjustable.
- The team maintained an active cost strategy list throughout each design phase, tracking material substitutions, scope adjustments and constructability improvements on a continuous basis.
- Cost estimating was treated as a design tool, with detailed reviews conducted alongside the owner and design team at each phase to benchmark costs and inform decisions.
- Bid alternates were developed from the cost strategy list and structured into the bid documents in advance, converting uncertainty into planned flexibility at bidding.
What Attendees Will Take Away
The session is built around a process that districts can replicate. Attendees will learn how to adjust design decisions for cost efficiency without compromising functionality, how to manage an active alternates list across design phases and how to use cost estimates to drive decisions rather than simply document them.
Matt will describe how this strategy gave Washington County Public Schools flexibility in their decision-making process right up to the end of the bid process, which may help inform other local education agencies facing similar challenges during project development.
.avif)
