The Board spent much of its special meeting Friday, November 16 discussing next steps to begin construction on the elementary remodel/addition. (Scroll past the video for more article text)
Board policy 672.1 states that any contracts over $100,000 must include sealed bids.
FEH Design and Kraemer Brothers have already emailed Interim Superintendent Mitch Wainwright contracts for review to act as architect and general contractor.
Kevin Eipperle of FEH said that his company’s bid is already public due to their work to date for the elementary design workshop and other activities. He believed it was the understanding that, if the referendum was successful, FEH would continue to be the architect moving forward.
The Board said it would need to see what the current contract with FEH states. If there was no such language, the Board seemed to express a desire to open up the architect contract for competitive bids.
Board treasurer Larry Steffes asked Eipperle about FEH’s work in other districts after successful referendums. Eipperle said FEH did not need to bid on work following a successful referendum in Cuba City, River Ridge, or Belmont (FEH did similar work prior to the referendum in those districts as they have done to date in Mineral Point).
Eipperle said his team has already completed approximately $20,000 worth of additional work since the referendum passed two weeks ago, beginning the design phase.
Greg Callin of Kraemer Brothers added, “You are in a position lots of school boards are in. The policies you have are not a perfect fit for what you’re trying to orchestrate. On the build side of things, if you open up things to consider other contractors, they are not bids (they are proposals on fees). What most school districts have done is you want to capture the sub contractor and supplier market to have those bids come to one party. If you don’t, you end up with a dilution of bids.”
The Board voted unanimously with Jeff Basting absent to table the selection of the architect and general contractor until a special meeting Monday 11/19 at 6:30 pm.
Other business:
- Unanimously approved the hiring of Kim Kitelinger as an early childhood instructional assistant at 16 hours per week. Steffes had not yet arrived at the meeting and Basting was absent. This position is funded through flow through dollars. (This begins the meeting video)
- The Board unanimously approved (with Basting absent) the hiring of Wyser Engineering of Mt. Horeb as the Civil Engineer for the elementary project.
- The Board discussed, as per Wainwright’s recommendation, the potential suspension of the Board’s $5,000 spending policy for referendum expenditures only.
In order to avoid excessive meetings as the construction progresses, Wainwright recommended to the Board they suspend their $5k purchasing policy, if the items fall into the entire approved budget of the referendum project.
Eipperle added that it’s important to not delay construction once it begins while the Board waits to hold special meetings.
This item will be up for action at Monday’s special meeting.