The district could save nearly $500,000 by directly bidding out
certain aspects of Christopher High School’s construction.
Gilroy – The district could save nearly $500,000 by directly bidding out certain aspects of Christopher High School’s construction.
The Gilroy Unified School District board of trustees unanimously approved a resolution to solicit bids for $2.9 million in specific components of the new high school, such as the security and ventilation systems, at a meeting Oct. 4. The direct bidding process, as opposed to having the project’s general contractor bid out the components, could save $440,000, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Steve Brinkman said.
“The concept is you avoid a couple markups,” he said. “You avoid the subcontractor markup and you avoid most of the contractor markup, which can save 15 to 25 percent on a given bid assuming you can bid the process as well as the general contractor can.”
The district has experience bidding out construction aspects and has realized savings through this method in the past, he said. In the past few years, the district solicited and accepted bids for portables, furniture and computers at multiple sites, heating-ventilation-air conditioning units at Gilroy High School, and the security system at the new Las Animas Elementary School.
Trustees were supportive of the process and trustee Rhoda Bress asked if the district could directly bid other aspects of the construction to save even more money. Brinkman said doing so could risk expensive mistakes if the items the district bid out did not match up with what was ordered by Gilbane, the project’s general contractor.
“We’ve probably pushed it as far as we can,” he said.
Soliciting bids is “one of the biggest steps in the process” of building the new school, Superintendent Deborah Flores.
“Symbolically it represents us moving forward and building the school as designed.”
The district has a $15 million facilities deficit, which trustees and staff decided to bridge using a plan that would borrow against future fees contributed by housing developers. Bids for the site work – such as grading land – at the high school came in $3.5 million less than an $11 million estimate, subtracting from the deficit.
The building construction, which the district hopes to have Gilbane bid out by Nov. 15 and could cost more than $60 million, could also result in savings, Flores said.
“We’re hoping the bids will come in low,” she said.
