by Garrick Moritz,
Garretson Gazette
The Garretson School Board met in regular session on Feb. 13th. The main meat of the meeting was to accept the base bid for the athletic complex restoration, but to reject the alternates proposed. The Board also announced a public information meeting for the proposed opt out will be held on Monday, Febuary 27.
First, during the Consent Agenda, the board accepted the resignation of Tony Johnson as the Middle School Social Studies teacher effective at the end of the school year. Next, Kelsey Buchholz had submitted a letter of resignation for her duties as Assistant Volleyball coach only, and the board accepted that as well.
There being no old business, the board immediately began to tackle the biggest issue of the night, the bids for the Athletic Complex restoration project.
The bids were problematic in many ways. Four companies had submitted bids to the school, but in three cases with these bids, they failed to include details specified by the bid contract that the engineer had stipulated. Even though some of the bids were lower cost, because they didn’t include the details specified in the bid contract or didn’t submit their bid using the material components specified by the engineer, the engineering firm and administration both recommended the bids be rejected. Without the details specified, the board couldn’t make an informed vote.
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The only qualifying bid left was from Mammoth Construction. As the board debated the acceptance of this bid, there were strong opinions voiced on the board that were dissatisfied with the pricing of some of the alternates.
The base bid came out to what was expected at approximately $2 million.
The base line project entails stripping out the old turf and soil and replacing it with new materials that will function better with local soil and weather conditions. The board was generally satisfied with this bid.
However, the concrete work and the scoreboard replacement alternates came in significantly over what had been projected.
Board members Andy Hulscher and Jodi Gloe spoke to these points, with Hulscher advocating the acceptance of the base bid and waiting out or rebidding the other components to get better prices or local contractors, especially for the concrete work to be done.
Gloe said that she felt the repair work needed for the concrete at the athletic complex should not wait, as the school’s insurance company directly requested this be addressed. She did not want that to become a liability for the school. Supt. Guy Johnson agreed, saying his understanding was that the request from insurance to repair the broken concrete slabs was a high priority.
Discussion around the table turned to figuring out a way to fix the broken concrete without having to install a whole new sidewalk and the slabs to support the proposed guest bleachers. Board members felt that those items, like the scoreboard, were not as high a priority as fixing the broken concrete.
They voted to approve the base bid that Mammoth had submitted for the turf and track field repairs. The board directed the administration to rebid the concrete projects out, but to separate them into separate jobs. The repair work might fall beneath the cost needed for a bidding process in this case, and could just be hired done by a local contractor.
Board President Shannon Nordstrom said he’d be in favor of bidding out all the rejected alternates again, just to see what they’d get, though everyone at the table realized that it would be a roll of the dice to get better or even the same prices. The board then passed a resolution to issue capital outlay certificates to pay for said project.
Next the board briefly discussed and then appointed Shannon Nordstrom and Jodi Gloe as the board’s negotiators with the Garretson Teacher Association.
There were two other items of importance.
The school board will be hosting a public meeting on Feb 27th at 7:00 p.m. to present information about the opt-out vote and to host a question-and-answer session. This will be filmed and broadcast on the Alliance channel and YouTube.
Last, but certainly not least, Beverly Howe was named the Garretson School District Teacher of the year.
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