Delays accepting bid to March meeting
The Greene County Schools board of education opened bids for construction of the new high school and career academy last Wednesday. The board identified Henkel Construction of Ames as the low bidder but won’t formally accept the bid until the March 13 regular meeting.
Henkel’s base bid for the project was $31,573,000, about $3.4 million lower than the next higher of the four bids submitted. Each bidder was asked to itemize 17 different items in the bid, with five of them being items that could be deducted from the total cost, and 12 of them as items that could be added to the project.
School superintendent Tim Christensen recommended taking two of the deductions: wood veneer on the ceiling and wall reflectors in the auditorium at a savings of $350,000; and a distributed antenna system at a savings of $90,000.
The two deductions bring Henkel’s bid down to $31,133,000.
Christensen graded the bids a B+, “a little bit higher than what we’d like”. He said the next step would be talking with Henkel to determine if there are any cost savings they would suggest as the apparent low bidder.
Board member Sam Harding, who of the board members has the most experience with the construction industry, graded it at an A-. He spoke highly of Henkel Construction, calling it “a really good contractor.”
Harding added that he’d be uncomfortable accepting a bid without first asking the Henkel Construction if its staff saw any potential savings possible by tweaking the plans as OPN Architects provided them.
Total project cost, including $1.5 million in renovations at the current high school, land acquisition, a 3 percent construction contingency fund ($934,000) and professional design fees, is $36,984,000, more than $1.5 million above the total revenue available for the project.
Christensen said the revenue portion of the project – $35,480,000 – does not include an estimated $300,000 interest to be earned on the bonds already sold in advance of construction.
Other base bids were Jensen Builders, $34,975,000; Harold Pike Construction, $36 million; and Sande Construction, $37,510,223.
During board committee reports, Steve Fisher again talked with the board about keeping a portion of the new school site in crop production until it is eventually used for athletic fields. Fisher was asked to continue discussions with Mike Bravard, Tanner Lawton and Derek Kennedy and have more ideas and information at the March 13 board meeting.
The board reviewed a draft calendar for the 2019-20 school year and set a public hearing on the calendar for March 13 at 6:30 pm.
The proposed calendar sets the first day of school for students as Friday, Aug. 23, and the last day as Thursday, May 28, 2020. There is a full two-week winter break over the holidays and a spring break the third week in March.
The calendar calls for 1,118 hours of instruction. A minimum of 1,080 hours is required by the Iowa Department of Education. Attendance hours have been added to the end of the current school year because of school closures due to weather. The 2019-20 calendar has an extra 38 hours built in to make it less likely students will still be in school in June.
The board approved a revised policy for accepting international exchange students. The new policy was researched by high school principal Brian Phillips. He said the current policy worked well in 1962 when a local sorority first partnered with AFS, but the number of agencies placing students has grown considerably since then, as have expectations of schools. The new board policy includes expectations of the placing agencies or companies and of the inbound students.
It names 1 percent as the suggested percentage of exchange students in the student body. Phillips said that would mean a maximum of four students per year, although five would be workable. He said having many exchange students “becomes a drain on our foreign language department with students that are questionable on their English. We don’t get any money for them… There becomes a point of diminished returns, in a way.”
He also spoke of “the cultural richness they (exchange students) provide” to Greene County students, and their participation in athletics, fine arts, and even in advance placement classes. “We’ve been very fortunate.”
All school boards in the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference are voting this month on a proposal to increase student admission at events from $3 to $5. Adult admission would remain at $5. The Greene County board voted to leave the student admission at $3.
The board held a closed session with board attorney Keith Pedersen Per Iowa Code 21.5(1)(c) “to discuss imminent litigation with counsel.”
