School trustees narrowly approved a district effort to save
money and get an early jump on building the new high school despite
financing concerns.
Gilroy – School trustees narrowly approved a district effort to save money and get an early jump on building the new high school despite financing concerns.
A Gilroy Unified School District board of trustees short two members voted 3 to 2 Thursday to allow companies to bid for the Christopher High School site work. This construction phase would include grading the surface, but not building any elements of the school.
Trustees in favor of floating the bid sided with district officials, architects and contractors. They said bidding the project now would increase the time frame for building the high school and increase the chances it would be completed by fall 2009. Trustees opposed to floating the bid said construction – even the groundwork – should not be started until the trustees scale back the project so that it does not create a $15 million facilities deficit.
“For me, the financing just isn’t there so I’m a little reluctant to go with approval for this authorization,” said trustee Francisco Dominguez, who raised his voice at several points in the discussion.
The board scheduled a study session for Aug. 23 to discuss the new high school’s attendance boundaries, staffing, course offerings and financing, among other subjects.
Waiting for the study session to start the site work could cause delays of more than a month as the rainy season – typically from mid-October to mid-April – approaches and turns the soil into mud and clay, said assistant superintendent of business services Steve Brinkman. Due to rising construction and material costs, this delay could increase costs by upwards of $400,000, he said.
The district would also take a risk that, during the delay, the California Department of Education might approve a change to the way it funds district construction, Brinkman said. Under the new rules, the district would receive only a portion of its state funding during the first phase of the construction and would have to wait several years until starting the second phase for the remainder of the money. This could force the district to shell out an additional $7 to $12 million while waiting for the state financing, he said.
These worst-case scenarios were enough to encourage trustees Denise Apuzzo, Pat Midtgaard and Javier Aguirre to vote in favor of floating the bid. However, the scenarios were not enough to sway Dominguez, who grew indignant at repeated lobbying by district staff and the district architect, Paul Bunton.
Dominguez insisted trustees and staff have all the financing in place so the high school, now $14 million over budget, does not create a $15 million district construction deficit. Issuing a bid for site work – even though trustees can reissue or change the bid and can change its construction plans if they revise the high school’s design at their study session – creates an atmosphere where staff and residents will expect the funding and faculties of the current design, he said.
“This is where we get into the mucky water,” he said. “There’s going to be uncertainty. That creates more headaches down the road. I don’t like getting caught up.”
Board president Tom Bundros joined Dominguez in voting against the bid, but did so only because he knew that it would pass on the backs of the other three trustees.
“I want it to be on the record that the board was split,” he said.
Two trustees were absent from Thursday night’s discussion. Trustee Jaime Rosso was on vacation and trustee Rhoda Bress missed the meeting because of the death of a family friend.
District staff expect to have received bids from subcontractors and chosen a company to recommend by the time trustees wrap up their study session.
The discussion and the bid process represent the first steps of a lengthy construction process, said Superintendent Deborah Flores, who supported floating the bid.
“Two years is not that far away,” she said. “We have a lot to do to open this high school.”
