Build a gym, do it right.

The Ripon Unified school board is hoping for just that for the Weston Elementary School reconstruction project.

Trustees, at Monday’s meeting, heard the current design of this voter-approved Measure G plan still didn’t adequately address the student safety issue. “The simplest solution is to expand the building,” said Khushroo Gheyara, CEO of Program Management Integration.

The initial plan had the available space at each end of the basketball court at about four feet. Needed was an additional two feet in each direction in order to provide enough space for the safety of students during games.

That comes to about 500 square feet of additional construction necessary to increase the available space at each end of the court to six feet.

All told, the additional cost for this expansion is estimated at $110,000.

“I know that is not an acceptable number for the board,” Gheyara said of the project that’s budgeted at $10.4 million.

Whether it is or not, board President Donna Parks indicated that the Weston School project “should be done right, in the first place,” she said.

Parks added, “It would be mindful of us to do the job correctly and, in the big scheme of things, done right (in order) to suit our needs.”

Gheyara added that in order to offset any additional costs, his team – this includes contractor CT Brayton & Sons of Escalon – will look into options to value engineer the gym. This could include delaying certain costs or identifying other sources of funding that might be available during the construction period.

“It will be built within the $10.4 budget,” he said.

Plans also call for work on this project to be done on a lease-lease back terms, with Weston followed by Colony Oak to be remodeled in the coming years.

The completion of the work, under lease-lease back, is often done on time and without change orders, taking out any of the headaches that may occur with any major project, Gheyara said at a recent meeting.

The next step is the construction document approval by December followed by review of the plans by the Division of State Architect in Sacramento.

Gheyara is hoping for the project to be sent out for bid by April or May, with construction to take place at the end of this school year. If all goes accordingly, the Weston renovation could be completed by July 2015.

“We will be under a tight time line,” he said.