- April 25, 2024
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Aerial view of the architect's design of a new building, center, to be constructed at Matanzas High School. Courtesy photo Flagler Schools
The new Matanzas building will house a new media center and construction lab and connect to Building 5. Courtesy photo Flagler Schools
View of the backside of the new building with the construction lab's fenced-in outdoor area and windows on the second floor media center. Courtesy photo Flagler Schools
The view from the bus loop of the architect's design of the new building at Matanzas. Courtesy photo Flagler Schools
An opposite side view of the new building. Courtesy photo Flagler Sch
The Matanzas High School expansion project will add space for 366 more students and include two new buildings that would provide space for a new media center, construction lab and physical education and athletics. The project is scheduled to cost $17.5 million and be ready for the 2024 to 2025 school year.
Patrick Rauch of SchenkelShulz Architecture presented the School Board with detailed design plans for the expansion at a July 19 workshop. The centerpiece of the expansion is a new two-story 20,000-foot building that will connect to Building 5. It will house a construction lab with classrooms on the ground floor and a 21st-century media center and digital art lab on the second floor.
The centerpiece of the Matanzas expansion will be a new two-story 20,000-foot building that will house a construction lab with classrooms on the ground floor and a 21st-century media center and digital art lab on the second floor.
The current media center in Building 4 will be converted into additional cafeteria space and a classroom. The current construction lab will be converted into standard classrooms.
The other new building will be a pre-engineered metal multipurpose building for PE/athletics and athletic storage to be constructed just to the north of the athletic fieldhouse. The new building will have a rubberized floor and likely house a new wrestling room.
The new metal building and a new adjacent central energy plant, that will have an updated electrical transformer, will require a revised access road into the stadium.
Rauch said the exterior of the new two-story building will have a legacy concept incorporating the existing brick design and its own character. The construction lab will include to an enclosed outdoor area with a canopy that will provide room for major construction projects. The second-floor media center will include floor-to-ceiling windows on the backside of the building.
District officials are recommending the board approve hiring a construction manager to facilitate ordering materials rather than the usual hard-bid construction delivery method. A construction manager would cost an estimated additional $50,000 to $70,000, said Dave Freeman, the district's chief of operational services.
The advantage of a construction manager, Rauch and district staff said, is the project would be expedited by four months or more with materials being ordered earlier. Lead time on materials such as electrical switch gears and chillers could be as long as a year.
Board member Janet McDonald asked Flagler Schools Superintendent Cahty Mittelstadt for her opinion on the two delivery methods.
"This model," Mittlestadt said of hiring a construction manager, "meets your compressed, accelerated efforts to get a project up and out of the ground."
Mittlestadt also praised SchenkelShulz Architecture, a firm she had worked with when she was was the deputy superintendent for operations in the St. Johns County School District.
The district maintains that with a construction manager, the expanded campus likely will be ready by August, 2024, while with the hard-bid method, the project likely won't be complete until the second semester of 2024-25.
The board decided to allow the district to put the construction manager position up for bids and then it will vote to accept the contract or go in the other direction.
