Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Colfax seniors Riley Griffiths and Kylie Kackman present an "air track" project from Kathryn Vogler's physics class to school board members Monday at the high school library.
Colfax school board members, from left to right, David Nails, Brian Becker, Robert Smith and Terry Huber listen to ASB students' presentation in their honor. Not pictured is board president Jennifer Hauser.
The Colfax School board approved 1,775 pages of bid documents Monday night for a year-and-a-half of upcoming construction, paid for by the $18.9 million bond passed last February.
The documents, which add up to an estimate of $14,687,000, were presented by district architects Amy Minden-Browne and Ned Warnick.
Minden-Browne, project manager, had sent board members a copy of the documents last Friday to look over, including two sets of drawings, project specifications and a 58-page constructibility review – conducted by a third-party set of engineers and construction managers who spent a week at the school just before Christmas.
They turned in their report in late December and Design West representatives reviewed it.
Speaking to the board Monday, Minden-Browne noted that the $14,687,000 total includes an eight percent contingency built-in. It does not include "soft costs" such as permit fees, furniture and other items.
With the board's approval, the bid will now go out to advertising in the time frame the architects intended.
"We're gonna go out early," said Minden-Browne. "By design, we wanted to get out first to bid. We don't know what the market will be like this year. By this time next week we hope to have 5-7 general contractors looking at it."
A walk-through pre-bid meeting is scheduled for Feb. 19.
The bid proposal includes 17 "alternates," including new football lights, a technology package with new projectors and vinyl wall graphics for classrooms.
"These are a la carte items, basically," said Warnick. "Dessert items."
Warnick noted that school design and construction in this region is done by about 10 contractors and five architectural firms, so whichever company is chosen as contractor, Design West is likely to have worked with them before.
After Minden-Browne and Warnick spoke, the board took two separate actions. Brian Becker moved to approve the constructibility report followed by a second from Robert Smith. Then an authorization for the project to proceed to bid was moved by Smith and seconded by Becker. Both passed unanimously.
First advertisements for the bid process were set to run Tuesday with a second round Feb. 5, and bid opening scheduled for Feb. 28.
From there, a series of construction phases will begin as soon as spring break in April.
Targeted date of final completion will be Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020.
Also at the board meeting Monday, Pugh read a proclamation from Washington Governor Jay Inslee for January 2019 as school board recognition month.
"The word volunteer is a big word for what you guys do," said Pugh.
In more opening remarks, Pugh thanked Pastor Don Moore and the Church of the Nazarene for approval to use part of the church's parking lot during construction to come.
The board also approved a $1,000 donation from the Thrifty Grandmothers' Shop for negative lunch accounts at the junior/senior high school. They also approved an overnight trip request for its one girl wrestler to a tournament in Wenatchee, an out-of-endorsement assignment for teacher Kiran Dhillon in integrated math and a career and technical education action plan.
Also, the board signed off on Shawna Kneale's hiring as junior high assistant volleyball coach and Kelly Heinlen as volunteer.
The board will meet again Feb. 11.
Board Appreciation Night
Colfax High Associated Student Body (ASB) representatives put on a board appreciation night Monday at the library, with a series of gifts and presentations to the five-member board.
ASB representatives spoke and presented a short video that they had made.
What does a school board member do, they asked to small elementary kids from Jennings Elementary.
"I know," one boy said, raising his hand. "Make boards."
A little girl had an answer.
"I don't know because I've never seen one," she said.
The evening also included a physics demonstration of an air track, by teacher Kathryn Vogler, led by ASB representatives Kylie Kackman and Riley Griffiths, both seniors.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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