The reality of a second high school for the Morgan Hill School
District inched a little closer last week as School Board trustees
ratified a negotiated contract with Turner Construction to serve as
construction manager for the new Sobrato High.
The reality of a second high school for the Morgan Hill School District inched a little closer last week as School Board trustees ratified a negotiated contract with Turner Construction to serve as construction manager for the new Sobrato High.
“The market is very soft, this is a good time for you right now,” Turner Project Executive Doug Williams said. “Some school districts are seeing huge under-budget bids because of it.”
The School Board jettisoned former construction manager Jacobs Facilities, Inc., responsible for construction of Barrett Elementary and the first phase of Live Oak High renovations, when a milestone in Jacobs’ contract with the district was reached.
Turner Construction responded to the RFP (request for proposals) sent out by the district after the former board voted to do so in October. A recommendation to extend Jacobs’ contract failed on a 3-3 vote at the former board’s final meeting in November.
After extensive interviews with Jacobs and Turner after the new board was elected, a subcommittee composed of Trustees George Panos, Shellé Thomas and Mike Hickey recommended the board select Turner; the board agreed, voting 5-2 on Feb. 10 to select Turner.
The district has been in negotiations with Turner since that time on contract details.
“In the private sector, I would say, ‘Go do the job and bill me’ once you have this kind of reputation,” said Hickey. “We did a lot of negotiating back and forth in this contract. And I agree with Brooke (Bailey, who addressed the board about Live Oak renovations) that we do need to finish Live Oak.
“I’d like to come in under budget on this (Sobrato) … I think the market is perfect for building the high school now. We wait a year or two on this, and people will be up here screaming that we blew our chance.”
Trustee Jan Masuda said she has confidence in Turner Construction.
“We gained experience with the Live Oak project and the Barrett project,” she said. “We know what we want and what we don’t want. Timeline has been mentioned, and it is important, but I’m not willing to sacrifice shoddy work or cost overruns to meet the deadline. I don’t think we’ll find a better time than now.”
The vote to ratify Turner’s contract was 5-2. Trustees Amina Khemici and Thomas voted no.
Khemici said she voted against ratifying the contract because she said she doesn’t think this is a good time to build the high school.
“I really feel that Turner will do an excellent job, but my concerns are the same as Shellé’s,” she said. “We have so many things on our plate right now. I don’t think its a great time now to build a high school.”
Williams said this is a good time, market-wise, to be building.
“There is a lot of manpower available now, as compared to when Barrett (Elementary) was built, when everyone was so busy,” he said. “We should be able to get better bids because of that … Although the market is soft, however, some of the salaries continue to go up because of previous agreements, so not all the bids may be so very low.”
Other trustees agreed that the district could take advantage of market conditions and still manage to complete Live Oak High renovations, a concern of some speakers at the meeting.
“It’s time to build this damn high school,” said Board President Tom Kinoshita. “And we still have a commitment to Live Oak I think we’ll fully fulfill.”
Sobrato is scheduled to open in fall 2004. A groundbreaking ceremony took place Oct. 18. Plans for the high school have been scaled back to 173,902 square-feet to accommodate 1,500 students at an estimated cost of $76 million instead of the 2,500 originally intended. The school had been planned for 186,000 square-feet.
In addition to a construction manager, the School District also needs to acquire more property before it can complete Sobrato.
During the School Board’s regular meeting on March 10, trustees voted 5-2 to approve a resolution authorizing the district to exercise eminent domain to acquire the West property, 19500 Monterey Road. The property is necessary to widen Burnett Avenue, one of the requirements of the supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for traffic mitigation.
“The board has looked at this for some time,” Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said March 10. “There is no other access. The property is necessary … We are still in negotiations with the property owners, but this will allow us to move forward.”
Khemici and Thomas voted against adopting the resolution.
“I have some concerns,” Thomas said. “I think we need to listen to Brad Saylor (consultant hired by the district to report on construction costs for Barrett Elementary). At the last meeting, he told us the costs incurred at Barrett for this type of thing were atypical. Whether we support this action or not, I think we need to open up a dialogue with the city. They might be able to share in the cost of purchasing the property or putting in the (traffic) signal.”
The district still needs to acquire several properties: the Webenbauer property, the Irish Construction property and a parcel owned by the City of Morgan Hill.
