The Brownfield ISD Board of Trustees met in Special Session on Thursday, June 4 to take care of a few items that needed handled prior to the next regularly scheduled meeting.
The main item on the agenda dealt with Phase 3 of the new Brownfield High School building project. The agenda stated, ” The 2019 Bond allotted funds to build a new high school. Sandia Construction serves as the Construction Manager at Risk for the construction of the new BHS building. Sandia, in collaboration with Parkhill Smith and Cooper, prepare bid packages, publish bid packages, and work with BISD to select providers. The funds will be encumbered, but not expended until project completion. Package 3 Guaranteed Maximum Price is $28,124,503.”
“When we started the bond process, Sandia and PH&C told us the build would be done in three packages. We have already approved the first two. This completes the packages,” stated Superintendent Chris Smith. “Remember that I asked you a couple of weeks ago about extending the bid window because there was so much interest in the project. Whether that was COVID-19 related or what, we had lots of people wanting to bid. This ended up serving us well. It became highly competitive and potential bidders had a longer time to study the project.”
The Project Manager for Sandia stated that this could be somewhat of a silver lining in the whole disease/quarantine situation. “People were looking for jobs and were very interested in this project.” Smith stated that the bids actually came in under budget and under what had previously been designated for this package. “We may even realize even more savings as time goes on in this project,” stated Smith. The Sandia rep stated that the $28 million included $1 million in contingency, meaning incidentals that may pop up.
The school project is currently running just about on schedule. Smith stated, “This work site is considered an independent site and not functioning as a school right now, so there are not the strict rules like you see at the hospital project, where the hospital is still operating and thus has to follow stricter guidelines.”
The other major item was the “consideration and action on the passage of a Resolution Authorizing the issuance of Brownfield ISD Maintenance Tax Notes, Series 2020, in the principal amount of $950,000 and providing for the security and payment thereof with interest; approving sale of the notes; and enacting other provisions incident and relating thereto.”
What this all means is that in a previous board meeting, the board did approve the purchase of new technology for all students Pre-K through 12th grade for the coming school year. This will put personal pads, or laptops in the hands of all students. This will cost in the area of $950,000 to be paid back over four years in payments of $237,500 each. The loan was made through Prosperity Bank to cover these purchases up front. This will be paid for as a budget item through the General Fund. This amount is about what is budgeted for technology yearly on a normal basis. The board did approve this item after a motion by Randy Anthony and a second by Cat Gonzalez.
The final item on the agenda was that of requesting a CPR waiver for this year’s graduating class. Each Senior class member is required to take CPR training, which is usually done in the Spring Semester and, obviously, was not completed this year. A waiver must be applied for and approved by the State for this. This request was approved by the board.
Smith in giving announcements, gave somewhat of a synopsis of how graduation would look on Friday night. There are many rules and guidelines that must be followed to be in compliance.
The board will next meet in regular session on Monday, June 15 at 6:30 p.m.
