Stemming from yesterdays post and as an FYI...this is a response from Emmett School District Superintendent Wayne Rush regarding those questions some of us have regarding our high school and existing district projects - Thank you!: Greetings, Would you be willing to post the following response / answers to questions raised in these posts. It might help inform the discussion. Thank you. Wayne Rush Thank you for your interest in the Dome project. As we have worked on these domes over the past few years, it is more important than ever that we repair the roofs. Dire maintenance is an understatement. Our architects, roofing contractors, product manufacturers and consultants all agree that this project should have been done 10 years ago. Complaining about the past does not help; we can only deal with today. When we went to bid for this project we knew of many issues and these were included in the bid. What we did not know were areas that look perfectly good on the outside that had water under the covering of the foam. We were surprised about the amount and extent of the water in the foam. When I wrote the article in the newspaper, we were working with our contractor and architect to determine how much more the project will cost, and if we could get the job done before school starts. We also wanted to give the contractor a little time to see how fast they could get the work done. If they could not have completed the project before school started, then out of concern for the student’s safety, it would have required us to postpone the project until it was safe. There has been no misappropriation of funds. We had budgeted $700,000 to resurface the domes. Our contractors bid came in under $500,000. With the additional repairs, the entire project will cost more than the $700,000; but we will be able to cover the cost of repairing the additional damage. We will just have to postpone some other projects. As soon as I know the final figures, we will share those numbers. I received information yesterday that the contractor believes they can complete the entire project, all five domes, by August 15th. This is great news and allows us to move forward without a delay. The community is always welcome to come to board meetings. The meetings are often long and have to cover many issues, as our last meeting went past 11:00 so the board may not be able to cover all the questions you might have at the meeting, so I would encourage you to come and visit me at the office, call, ask questions on Facebook or email. We have discussed this issue for about 2 years. Following are specific answers to some of the questions raised in the posts: Am I a politician? Yes, there are politics in every job and especially in school districts. I feel strongly that we share the entire story even before we know all the answers. I think the community needs to see the process and processes are messy. If I wanted to hide information, I would have written an article after the fact and you would have never known about the problems with the dome or that we were even considering options. That is not how I like to do my job. Was an assistant superintendent hired? No, we hired a part-time Federal Program director. We are hiring that part-time position back and adding a few additional duties this next year. However, the full-time position was not, and will not, be filled for this next year. We do need this position. What about the unfinished parking lot at the High School with no landscaping? The project is not completed. We have a senior who has taken on the design of the new entrance to the football field as his senior project, and he is close on the design. We have plans for the new road in front of the field and it does include landscaping. We are meeting Friday at 9:00 a.m. at the High School with community members who would like to help us raise private money, supplies and labor to complete this project. When was the last district audit? We are audited every year. The auditors will be here in July and August to audit the year that ends June 30, 2014. What about building a new high school? First, we have to protect our current investment. These buildings are valued at about 13 million dollars. A new high school would be in the range of 40 million dollars. The cost to build Middleton was 50 million dollars. Vallivue’s new high school bid came in at 57 million dollars and their high school is being built for 1800 students. How many bids did we get on the domes? We received 9 bids from companies around the west. We had a solid bid process and were very pleased that these many companies bid on the project.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:09:28 +0000
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