Wichita board approves $3.3 million remodel of old Southeast High

Converting the former Southeast High School into administrative offices for the Wichita school district will cost up to $3.3 million, according to a proposal school board members approved on Monday.

The vote on the agreement between the school district and Hutton Construction was unanimous. The contract with Hutton, which recently was awarded the new headquarters project, sets the “guaranteed maximum price” at $3.3 million.

The district plans to convert the former Southeast High, at Lincoln and Edgemoor, into a new district headquarters building.

The district sold its current headquarters building at 201 N. Water to developer David Burk for $1.2 million about two years ago. Since then, it has been leasing the building from Burk for $4,700 a month, using proceeds from the sale to make the lease payments.

School board members voted unanimously last month to select Hutton Construction as the construction manager for the project.

According to an item on Monday’s school board agenda, funding for the remodel will come from the sale of the Water Street building as well as capital outlay funds.

The project is the final step of a plan set in motion in June 2013, when the school board voted to build a new high school at 127th Street East and Pawnee. Board members pledged to consolidate district offices at the old Southeast High as well as to negotiate with Wichita Area Technical College to locate some of its programs there.

Officials said current plans call for the district to use about 53,000 square feet of the former Southeast High building. The remainder “will be unaltered for now until future use is determined,” spokeswoman Susan Arensman said in an e-mail.

Any collaboration with Wichita Area Technical College “has not been discussed actively as of late,” Arensman said. The district’s primary focus has been on vacating its current administrative building before September, she said.

District officials knew the sale of the Water Street building likely wouldn’t cover the cost of renovating Southeast High, Arensman said.

“We have worked hard to whittle costs down and minimize the investment we would need to make in this building, while at the same time keeping our promise to the community that former SE wouldn’t sit empty,” she said in the e-mail.

The new Southeast High School, which opened in August, was estimated in 2013 to cost $54 million. Since then, athletic facilities, furnishings and other additions have pushed the new school’s price tag to more than $65 million.

The nine-story Alvin E. Morris Administrative Center, commonly referred to as AMAC, has housed Wichita district administrative offices since 1994. It’s unclear how long the remodel will take or when district offices will move to the former Southeast High.

This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Wichita board approves $3.3 million remodel of old Southeast High."