To cover a $1.1 million overrun on several of its May 2017 bond projects, Hays CISD is hoping to utilize possible cost savings from roofing repairs.
While Hays CISD’s board of trustees approved Hot Rod Mechanical to start the project, several board members were concerned about how the district has generated cost estimates for projects in this bond.
The bond package had $593,000 budgeted for upgrades, including improving HVAC systems at Barton Middle and Hemphill Elementary, as well as roof repairs at Lehman High and Kyle Elementary. Upgrades at the four campuses are expected to begin this summer.
Max Cleaver, Hays CISD chief operation officer, said the district discovered the cost overrun after receiving three proposals in mid-March. Those proposals were part of a 2015 cost estimate study contracted by Hays CISD, which involved as many as four entities.
According to district documents, all but one of the four HVAC and roofing projects were more than $200,000 over budget, with the total amount coming out to roughly $1.7 million.
Cleaver said the cost overruns seemed to come from “inaccurate cost estimates” that lacked soft costs, such as architect and engineering fees, contingencies and unit count discrepancies.
Cleaver was unsure if miscommunication led to the cost discrepancies.
“With that many entities, that’s why I don’t want to be throwing stones at someone. I don’t know what communications that did or didn’t occur, but that seemed like it was a lot of cooks in the kitchen,” Cleaver said.
A solution, however, was to utilize projected cost savings from roofing repairs at Lehman High and Kyle Elementary, which partially helped to cover the overrun. Cleaver also reduced the scope of upgrades to the four campuses.
However, board trustee Willie Tenorio said April 16 he wasn’t in favor of the district’s 2015 study, as he believed similar issues could surface.
Tenorio said he preferred contracting a third party that had no ties to the district, or an entity that had not done any prior work on the same project.
“One thing we need to think about is when we do cost estimates, they come from an independent party,” Tenorio said.
Trustee Esperanza Orosco said April 16 she was concerned about the transparency of shifting money from one project to another. Orosco advocated for district officials to consult the Facilities and Bond Oversight Committee (FBOC), which holds an advisory role. The FBOC May 3 recommended utilizing some cost savings to help cover the overage.
Will McManus, Hays CISD trustee at-large elect and current FBOC chairman, said projects that are part of Proposition 2 are “fair game” as far as possibly moving funds around.
However, McManus said the FBOC was concerned about the inaccuracies of current cost estimates for bond projects.
While McManus said there’s not a crisis, the discovery of more cost overruns could be a reality, as the district doesn’t have all the numbers for all Proposition 2 projects.
“Some of the numbers and dollar amounts in Proposition 2 were not as put together as they should have been,” McManus said.
McManus said Cleaver is working to “shore up” numbers to get them as accurate as possible. The FBOC is also planning to look at its charter to assess how it could better help the administration and define what those things are moving forward.
“The committee has a new relationship with administration that I’m not sure was there previously,” McManus said. “There’s a high degree of trust moving forward.”
