By ALICIA LEONARD
Discussion and decisions on which type of bidding method would best serve the district in its plans for the new south Walton elementary school dominated a workshop on the subject and spilled over well past the time for the Walton County School Board(WCSB) to begin their regular meeting this past Jan. 5 afternoon.
District Director of Facilities Mark Gardner provided the board with a PowerPoint presentation of the statutes that govern their choices as well as the four types of construction delivery methods available to them.
The four methods discussed were: Design/Bid/Hard Bid(HB), Design/Bid(DB), Construction Management Agency(CMA) and Construction Management Agency at Risk(CMA-R). Gardner provided the board with survey results from all 67 school districts and the results showed that almost 81 percent use either a CMA or CMA-R process in the construction of school property.
Some previous construction in Walton using the HB method includes Walton High School(2009), Emerald Coast Middle School(2011), and Mossy Head School(2008). Projects using the CMA-R method include Walton Middle School(2016) Freeport Transportation Facilities(2016), Secure Lobby Renovations(2015) and the Walton Athletic Complex(2013-present).
With the first method, the board and district would have to work as “resolution agents” if the architectural documents and construction become conflicted during the build process. The board would have no guarantee that change orders or budgets would be met. The second option would allow the board to have a Guaranteed Maximum Price(GMP) and has more “risk control” but the owner of the project has limited involvement in the process after the General Contractor and/or Design Build team is hired. Under CMA there is no GMP and the owner contracts the architectural firm as well as each sub-contractor. With the CMA-R the owner selects the architectural firm, and the construction management team with a GMP established early in the process. The construction management team then bids out the work to subcontractors. If a job is underbid, or there are extra costs not included in the GMP the CMA-R is responsible for the difference, rather than the cost falling back on the district..
Board member Mark Davis said he was concerned that the district would not be getting the best price with a CMA OR CMA-R since he had seen a difference in the cost of construction for different buildings in the district that had been constructed using a HB versus a CMA or CMA-R.
After more discussion spilling over into the regular meeting time, the board closed the workshop and moved on to the regular meeting agenda which included a chance for the board to further discuss and choose a method of construction.
One of the first items on the regular agenda was a donation by the Grit & Grace, Inc. Board and local author/playwright/pastor Ronnie McBrayer of McBrayer’s book “Wild, Wild Walton.” “Wild, Wild Walton” was originally performed in 2015 by Grit & Grace as a stage play. After the play, McBrayer took the material and turned it into novel form. The group donated one of these novels to the library of each high school. The donation was warmly accepted, with many high school principals being on-hand to accept the donation in person.
After the opening announcements, the board moved on to pass the agenda before it, adopt prior minutes as well as pass the consent agenda 5-0. The board then moved swiftly through agreements, contracts and personnel recommendations, before coming back around to the question of which construction method to employ for the new school. After much discussion and vetting the board decided to use the CMA-R method in a 4-1 vote with Davis being the nay vote.
In a last bit of news during closing items and board comments, Davis announced he would not seek another term on the board in the 2016 elections.. “Twenty-one years is long enough,” he told fellow board members and the audience. “It’s time to give someone else a turn,” he concluded.
The next meeting of the WCSB will be Jan. 19 at South Walton High School in the media room. Workshops on that date will convene at 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. with the regular meeting being convened at 5 p.m.
To see agenda items and more information on upcoming workshops, meetings and school news, go to www.walton.k12.fl.us.