As part of the 2016 Grapevine-Colleyville ISD bond program, the GCISD board approved renovations to the school district's Animal Science Center at its meeting Oct. 23.

Chief Operations Officer Paula Barbaroux provided some history for the project, saying that in January the board approved a construction proposal from Joeris General Contractors LTD. for Grapevine High School's Animal Science Center, or Ag Barn.

"The [bond proposal] committee was committed to trying to make some pretty drastic improvements to that facility," she said.

This January approval for the project came with the advisement that the full scope of the renovations would be designed, bid and later added by change order to the work being performed by the contractor constructing the district's multipurpose activity centers.

"They’ve completed that process for that part of the package," Barbaroux said.

She pointed out that in addition to the bond funds, just over a year ago the board acquired a second set of surplus funds to do some early renovations to the Ag Barn, and with both of those sets of funds the project now has a budget of close to $1.2 million. The cost for the change order for the barn renovations is $905,948.

"As you can see the amount of this change order is less than that," she said.

Renovations to the Ag Barn are scheduled to begin after March 19 to avoid the agriculture show program period, Barbaroux said, and substantial completion on the project is scheduled for June 1.