CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – The Horry County School District expects to pay $300,000 dollars in overtime to finish three of the five new schools.
The Executive Director of Technology, Charles Hucks, told school board members on Monday the timeline would be tight.
All five of the schools were supposed to be complete in May 2017 but they were pushed back due to issues acquiring land, starting demolition and several delays due to weather.
“We were not able to accelerate the schedule as much as we had hoped,” said CEO of First Floor Architects, Robbie Ferris.
Ten Oaks Middle School, Socastee Elementary School and St. James Intermediate School are now set to be complete by early July.
However, that only leaves a few weeks for furniture and technological equipment to be moved in before the teachers begin in August.
“Those are things that take time,” said Horry County School Board Chairman, Joe DeFeo. “Most, not all, of that cannot be done until it’s finalized.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Chief Financial Officer, John Gardner, said the delay for construction will cost the district about $100,000 in overtime, per school opening for the 2017-2018 school year.
“If we’d have had a wider period of time then we probably wouldn’t need the money for overtime,” said Gardner. “But since there’s a tight time constraint then they are going to need those additional funds to accomplish their tasks.”
The money will come from a contingency fund and right now there is no plan to pay overtime for the two other schools.
