<b>By Libby Cluett</b><br><a href="mailto:lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com">lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com</a>
Most people who were in Mineral Wells during the early evening of April 17, 2008, distinctly recall the day stones fell from the sky as if they were thrown by a baseball pitcher.
Few buildings in the area escaped the pounding from varying sizes of hail – some that measured in at 3 inches when placed on a ruler. All of Mineral Wells ISD’s campuses, buildings and facilities were damaged in the storm.
Eighteen months after the destruction, the district has completed the thorough, detail-laden task of selecting a company to repair and replace roofs to the tune of $3.79 million.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, trustees unanimously accepted Crawford Roofing Inc., based in Chickasha, Okla., to undertake the district’s roof repairs. According to MWISD Superintendent Ronny Collins seven companies vied for a the job through a “competitive sealed proposal” process.
Although the process has seemingly been drawn out, it involved two third-party companies – one to deal with the insurance company and the other, an architectural firm, to develop a plan for what needed to be repaired and how.
It took until the fall of 2008, before the district reached a $6 million negotiated insurance settlement with the help of Jansen International LLC.
About six months ago, MWISD hired Parkhill, Smith and Cooper of Midland, Texas to examine the damage, assess the district’s needs, compile bid specifications, advertise twice for competitive sealed bids and vet contractor bid proposals for the project. They will remain on for the roofing construction process to make sure it meets the specifications.
“We don’t have the expertise in our district to do this,” Collins said. He added that PSC’s bid specs spell out what the scope of work is for this job – including items like materials and timing – then contractors bid based on those specs.
In correspondence Collins received this week, PSC stated that CRI was “the highest ranked proposer.”
Collins called selecting a roofing contractor was an “elaborate bid process,” which included several criteria adopted by the board. The criteria was 65 percent based on price and the remainder based on other factors, including on the project superintendent’s experience, company experience with roofing system and references, which PSC checked.
“We wanted to go with the one that gives us the best value … Crawford was ranked number one,” Collins said of vetting the companies aside from looking at their price. He added that CRI had the lowest price as well.
PSC recommended that MWISD award the roofing contract to CRI for their proposed sum of $3.79 million for the project. The CRI contract includes a 20-year wind and hail warranty option for each new roof.
“The price submitted is reasonable and consistent with current construction prices,” stated PSC’s letter to Collins this week.
Collins said the next step is, “We’ll have our attorneys look over the actual contract.”
MWISD plans to have a pre-construction conference next Thursday to work out scheduling so roofing and school do not interfere with one another, according to Collins.
“[The architect with PSC] said he thinks construction can be pretty discrete,” Collins added.
'Grow Your Own'
Bobbye Estes reported on the newly implemented “Grow Your Own” project to increase the number of certified bilingual elementary teachers in MWISD. She outlined the programs in the GYO plan, including offering tuition assistance for currently employed paraprofessionals, pay for a bilingual refresher for current certified teachers seeking bilingual certification, offering enrollment assistance for community members committed to teaching in Mineral Wells and offering a dual-credit scholarship for high school bilingual students interested in becoming teachers.
Estes told board members that funding for the GYO program would come out of the bilingual allotment from the state. She said the state allows districts to spend up to 10 percent, for MWISD this would be $9,000, on this type of initiative to help a district get more certified bilingual teachers.
She added there are 17 MWISD staff and possibly three community members interested in the program.
According to Collins, the district is “still trying to get in compliance with the required number of bilingual teachers the district needs.”
New bilingual teacher
Board members accepted the new hire of Francisco Ramirez as a “bilingual inclusion teacher” at Travis Elementary.
Collins told the Index that Ramirez is a product of the MWISD educational system. Trustees also accepted the resignation of Houston Elementary third-grade teacher Janice Newberry.
Computer haul
Collins reported that Technology Director Tracy Rich responded to a computer inventory giveaway at “DHS” in Denton. He said Rich thought he was picking up computers from Denton High School, but discovered the Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Administration Operations in Denton was the entity purging about 800 workstation computers and equipment.
Collins told board members that after Rich passed DHS security checkpoints, he was able to collect 300 Pentium-4 computers, 100 flat-screen monitors, seven TV sets and 15 laser and ink-jet printers.
“These are three generations from new, but newer than many in our district,” Collins read from Rich’s report about the computers.
Collins commended Rich on fortifying the district’s technology cache.
“It was good that he was able to stay on top of things and catch that,” Collins said, adding that Rich reported that 20 of the computers MWISD received have already been “deployed to the computer lab at Travis Elementary.”
