Construction of new school could be further delayed

The street improvements for Antonio Del Buono School are set, but the construction of the school, already behind schedule, could prove to be troublesome for the district.
School board members Thursday accepted bids from companies interested in building Del Buono school but were unable to award the one for construction.
By law, the district must award the bid to the lowest “responsible” bidder. In this case, H.A. Ecklin and Associates, which submitted a $9.2 million bid. However, the company could be facing a lawsuit for faulty work that it did elsewhere in the county and the possible suit which could affect its status as the lowest responsible bidder.
In order to use another company, district officials will need to document why Ecklin is not a responsible bidder.
The next lowest bidder is Lathrop Construction Associates, which submitted a nearly $9.3 million bid. Lathrop’s bid was $49,000 more than Ecklin’s.
The school district’s lawyer will attend the next board meeting to answer any questions the board might have.
Members also discussed deferred maintenance projects for the 1999-00 school year. Deferred maintenance projects include such things as roof repairs and new carpet.
Six buildings at Gilroy High School will need to be re-roofed at a cost of $325,000, and at three elementary schools in the district, the roofs need to be patched.
“If you have roof problems, you lose carpet, you lose interior walls, and you lose equipment,” said David Elliott, coordinator of maintenance, operations, transportation and food service.
The pavement at five ,schools also needs to be patched at a cost of about $90,000.
“Our pavement is in pretty poor condition at most of our schools,” Elliott said. “lf we don’t take care of it with slurry sealing, we’re going to have to take it up and we re going to have to repave.”
The school board also vote( 6-1, with Trustee Mark Good voting no, to stay with the cur rent practice of having the school board preside over expulsion hearings.
The board did have the option of going to an administrative panel, which mean that three administrators fron. the school district, including principals, would hear the cases of students facing expulsion
The board has to deal will about 15 expulsion hearings year, although in the past the number has been higher.
If the board did use at administrative panel and decided not to go with the panel’s recommendation, it would possibly have to re-hear cases.