The New Bloomfield R-III School District Board of Education selected the architect who will assist the district with facility repairs, which will be funded by the bond issue voters approved earlier this month. The district decided to use an architect for the project after legal counsel advised the district against using a performance contractor.
The $2 million no-tax increase bond issue will mainly fund heating and cooling system replacement and major parking lot repairs. Superintendent David Tramel said he met with a company who put in a bid to serve as a performance contractor on the project. As a performance contractor, the company would have designed the project, put out bids to various vendors for work and would bring the board a price for which it believed the entire project could be completed. Tramel told the board that he contacted another school who used the company and that he felt confident in New Bloomfield potentially using them after that call.
Additionally, Tramel said the company seemed confident that it would be able to complete several items from the district's wish list of other repairs on top of the main items the bond issue will fund. However, he added that the process would lack transparency.
"You're pretty much guaranteed a good result," Tramel told the board Thursday night. "But it left all of the bidding to them."
The performance contractor, not the district's board of education, would handle the bids and the quality of the materials being used. Board President Terri Sweeten said the board would like to utilize as many local vendors and contractors as possible for the facility repairs. With a performance contractor, that would be more difficult to arrange, Tramel said.
Because of the lack of transparency involved, Tramel said the district's legal counsel advised him against using the performance contractor route. Tramel said the high percentage of yes votes the bond issue received shows that voters have confidence in the district to wisely spend the bond issue funds. The bond issue passed with more than 81 percent voting in favor of it April 7.
Regarding the performance contractor route, Sweeten and other board members echoed a concern with transparency. Board members agreed they wanted more say and specific knowledge about each part of the process so that they could better answer any community questions later.
"We have to be good stewards of the money. It's what we promised," Sweeten said.
Tramel said the district also recently met with an architect who put in a bid for the project. The architect - Porter, Berendzen and Associates - has worked with the district on other projects for several years, Tramel said.
The board voted Thursday night to use Porter, Berendzen and Associates as the architect of the project. The firm will design the bid package, gather bids and guide the school board through the vendor selection, giving recommendations along the way. It will also serve as some on-site oversight during the project.
"It's very transparent," Tramel told the board of the architect route.
Tramel compared the board's action Thursday night to putting the architect firm on retainer. The next step, he said, is for them to create and approve a contract between the architect and the district. Also, the district will advertise the bonds locally.
In other news, the board swore in Sweeten and Russ Weyland at its meeting Thursday night. Both ran unopposed to reclaim their seats in the April 7 election.
The board also discussed Kelly Educational Staffing, a substitute teacher service which the district recently started using. The board voted in January to enter into an agreement with Kelly and the district has been using the service the past few weeks as a test run before next school year.
Tramel described the district's experience with Kelly so far as "up and down." He said Kelly had difficulty filling a couple of sub openings and some of the district's past go-to-subs have been unavailable because they were teaching in neighboring districts.
Kelly takes care of all of the human resources work associated with the substitute teachers. The company pays the subs because they are the company's employees - not New Bloomfield employees - then charges the district the amount needed to pay the subs the district's sub rate plus 39 percent, according to the agreement the board approved earlier this year.
Tramel said there is a benefit for the district to not be responsible for the HR associated with substitute teachers. However, he said the district must decide if Kelly is a good fit.
The board will discuss Kelly after the end of the school year and decide if the district will continue to use the substitute teacher service or revert back to its prior system for handling substitute teacher needs and HR.