WOODLAWN - The Woodlawn School Board decided to re-open the bidding process on expanding the school cafeteria Monday night after the estimated cost on a reduced version of the project came in higher than expected. The cafeteria expansion is one of two projects the Woodlawn School District plans to fund with a 2-mill tax increase approved by voters in May. The additional millage, along with restructing the district's existing debt, will generate about $3.85 million to fund the cafetera addition and a new career education center.Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hancock recommended to the board that the district advertise for another "request for qualifications" (RFQ) from contractors after Clark Construction's "conceptional estimate" for the cafeteria addition came in at $2,137,571, far exceeding what the board was expecting for an addition that measures less than 2,800 square feet.During the June school board meeting, the estimated the cost of the addition was $2,769,653. Based on that projection, the decision was made to have architect David Porter revise the plans to reduce the size and the cost.It was noted during Monday night's meeting that the district's original plan submitted to the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation for partnership funding was for an addition measuring about 3,800 square feet. The state awarded Woodlawn about $395,000 in partnership funding for the project, but it estimated that the addition only needed to be about 2,716 square feet.The amount of partnership funding a district receives is based on its "wealth index," which is essentially a formula that measures a school district's ability to raise money on its own. Woodlawn's wealth index puts it in a position to have about 70 percent of the estimated cost of a partnership project funded by the state.Porter presented a revised plan Monday night that reduced the size of the addition to 2,754 square feet, just 38 square feet l...
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