School board approves contract for complex, expresses disappointment with higher costs

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Woodruff Construction of Waterloo was awarded the contract for the Baseball and Softball Field and Improvement Project by the Charles City Community School District Board of Education at Monday’s meeting, but most of the board members expressed disappointment that the cost of the project was higher than expected.

“We’ve done a lot of major projects and a lot of special projects — big projects — but we’ve never put ourselves in this kind of position and risk,” said director Jason Walker. “There are some things we can do to help mitigate that risk and cover some balances, but I struggle to look at that as being acceptable.”

The board voted 4-1 to award Woodruff the contract, for $2,054,997.67, which includes general site work and grading, Comet Drive removal and relocation, building the baseball and softball fields and electrical installation.

Walker voted against. Director Josh Mack made the motion to approve the contract, with director Missy Freund seconding the motion.

Gary Anderson of Skott and Anderson Architects and Tim Moreau of Veenstra and Kimm reviewed the bids, which were received by Aug. 22. Woodruff had the lowest bid.

Moreau said two bids were received. He said Woodruff’s low bid was 10-11 percent over the engineer’s estimate, and said the driving force for that was the timeline — it is hoped that the project will be finished by the start of the 2020 baseball and softball seasons.

The engineer’s opinion for the probable cost of the base bid work was $1.854 million. The low bid from Woodruff of over $2 million puts the entire budget — including design/engineering fees, contingency, utilities relocation and other fees — at $2.545 million, which will be funded through donations, fundraisers and sales tax revenue.

Interfund loans may be necessary during the course of the project to fund temporary shortages based on the timing of pledges received and expenditures paid.

Walker said he was disappointed because, during his time on the school board, the board has always operated on the guidelines of being responsible and keeping the balance up. Other board members echoed those sentiments, although they still voted in favor of the contract.

“I don’t like the idea of us potentially going into the red. I don’t see that as fiscally responsible,” said director Scott Dight. “I would hope that with $150,000 in contingency, that we can stay at the very low end of that, or that we can have more donations or grants received, so that we would not have to do an intrafund transfer.”

Dight also said he was a little more comfortable knowing that money could be borrowed from the district’s health fund, which is nearly $2 million in the black.

“That eases the financial burden in my mind — the fact that we have a safety net in the black and it won’t affect the education or the operation of the buildings,” he said.

Board President Robin Macomber noted that this is a project which has been “discussed by boards before us for decades.”

“We have a responsibility to be fiscally responsible, but we also have a responsibility to do what’s right for our district and for our kids,” she said. “I have overwhelmingly been told by people in the community that this is the right thing to do.”

Macomber said she trusted the recommendations of Business Manager Terri O’Brien and Buildings and Grounds Manager Jerry Mitchell, who both told the board that the costs were manageable.

“Those are the two people who I feel are going to tell us if this is going to work or not,” she said. “My knowledge and comfort lay in their hands because it affects them.”

Macomber also noted that the public needs to know that the money for the project has nothing to do with the quality of education at the school.

“This is our project money — it has nothing to do with our teacher’s salaries, or a school district’s day-to-day operations,” she said.

Dight agreed. “This does not impact keeping the lights on, or keeping the teachers paid or keeping the buses running,” he said.

The board also directed Superintendent Mike Fisher to begin negotiations on behalf of the board for possible sale of the Shadow Avenue property on Monday. Fisher told the board that the potential sale of the Shadow Avenue property could offset some of the cost of the baseball/softball complex project.

In other business, Fisher outlined his goals for the 2019-20 school year to the board and presented a strategic operations plan for the district with Lincoln Principal Marcia DeVore.

Fisher said his general goals for the district include providing leadership around systems to develop equitable outcomes for all students, regardless of circumstance; provide leadership for the direct goal of assessing and improving culture, climate and learning environments for students and staff; and providing leadership for the district to achieve its goal ensuring 21st century facilities for learning and extra curricular environments.

In other business Monday, the school board:

• Approved the 2019-20 elementary and secondary school handbooks.

• Approved an agreement with Immaculate Conception school to enroll students in the district music program for the 2019-20 school year. The school district would receive supplemental weighting revenue from the state for students enrolled.

• Accepted nominees for the School Improvement Advisory Committee.

• Approved the resignations of Maria Reyes Rubio, administrative support I/native language interpreter; and Karleen Sickman, middle school girls track coach, effective Aug. 26.

• Approved the appointment of Annick Beaver, administrative support I/native language interpreter, at a wage of $19.24 per hour, starting Aug. 26.

• Approved the franchise agreement with the Iowa BIG program for the purpose of providing BIG to students and educators in the Charles City School District through June 30, 2020 and approved the agreement with Central Preschool for 2019-20.