School board dealing with cost overrun
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on April 12, 2015 1:50 AM
The bid for the pending facilities project at Goldsboro High School reportedly came in at $637,000 over budget, placing the Wayne County Board of Education at a crossroads -- reject the bid and start over or cut corners on the project.
The topic is expected to be discussed at Monday night's school board meeting.
Representatives from the architect firm hired by the district for $12 million in construction projects told the board recently about the overage.
Jim Copeland, vice president of Moseley Architects, also mentioned that the project to build additional classrooms at Spring Creek Elementary has come in under bid, suggesting the board "reallocate" funds there toward the Goldsboro High project. The district's finance office, Beverly Boltinhouse, said that was not an option, as paperwork has to be resubmitted to the Department of Public Instruction for any changes to the project.
The district approved a contract with Moseley last March to handle the proposed renovations and smaller projects at five schools. Those included $1.9 million designated for the central attendance area, including a new student commons area at GHS and air conditioning gyms at Dillard Middle and Carver Heights Elementary schools. The budget also included $3.9 million for classrooms at Spring Creek Elementary and a $6.6 million projects for classrooms and an expanded cafeteria at Charles B. Aycock High School.
The original budget for the Goldsboro High renovation was $1.14 million.
At a meeting with the facilities committee on Wednesday, Copeland said one of his concerns was that in the current climate, construction companies prefer to go after larger projects and to rebid may lose potential bidders and delay the project.
Committee members expressed concerns about the higher price tag on what appeared to be a smaller project.
"It seems like it costs more to add to an existing building than to just go out in a field and build something," Committee Chairman Arnold Flowers said.
"We have either got to come up with more dollars or rebid it, redraw and probably get lower, the same or higher. So it's kind of like throwing a dice," added board member Eddie Radford.
Ashley Dennis, senior associate at Moseley, admitted she was "floored" at how high the numbers had come in for the project, especially since larger projects like Aycock had come in under budget.
She said she did not feel as confident about that happening with the work at GHS.
"Can we leave this on the table -- the public is expecting the GHS job to be done," Radford said.
Flowers introduced another issue, inflation, suggesting the board consider other funding sources, like lottery funds or the half-cent sales tax.
Mrs. Boltinhouse said the lottery funds are currently tied up with the Spring Creek Elementary project, but said that she had been told that a request could be made of the commissioners to use the half-cent sales tax.
Flowers asked about the time frame of the Goldsboro project. Interim Superintendent Dr. Sandra McCullen said it had been slated to be completed in October.
The committee and Mrs. Boltinhouse discussed ways to "hypothetically" pay for the project, including transferring funds from one line item to another.
"I'm used to operating on faith," Flowers said.
The third member of the facilities committee, Dr. Dwight Cannon, said it did not appear that there was sufficient "contingency" money that could be used for this project.
"What you're saying is you're robbing Peter to pay Paul and Peter's getting upset about the robbing and wants his money back," he said.
Radford asked Mrs. McCullen to "see what money is out there" to help get the project done on time.
David Lassiter, maintenance director for the district, said he did not feel the smaller project was a detriment and believed there were local companies willing to take on work at GHS. He said had been approached by a local contractor with an interest but had been unavailable to participate in the bidding process earlier.
"If we could put it off until August, it might help us get a lot better price," he said.
Flowers called the dilemma a "Catch-22" between the court of public opinion and delaying the project.
"Wisdom tells us we have got so much going on, we would probably be better off (waiting)," he said, noting it will ultimately be a full board decision.
"If we could get that student commons area done for the same price that we've got now, we could probably have the things done you want and not leave them out," Lassiter said.
"We're talking about only a four-month delay," Cannon said. "As much as I don't want the public backlash, I don't know what else we could do. We're talking about a four-month delay, not a year."