By GARRETT SAGER
Hays Post
During Monday night’s Hays USD 489 Board of Education meeting and work session, the board had its final discussions on seeking bidders for a total replacement on the Hays High School HVAC system and passed the motion.
The motion passed 6-0 to advance the request for proposal offered by Integrated Consulting Engineers Inc.
Dwayne Vaughn, CEO of Integrated Consulting Engineers, was present Monday to answer questions.
Within the request for proposal is an in-depth outline that shows exactly what the district is looking for in a firm, such as specialized skills in facilities operations, capital planning and energy management.
Sarah Rankin, USD 489 Board vice president, raised concerns on whether the board would receive enough responses in the Hays area to tackle the task of making the improvements to the district with all the qualifications outlined in the RFP.
“I just wonder that in the arena of Hays if we would even receive enough responses for a bid,” she said.
Rankin followed up her statement by asking what they could expect in responses.
Vaughn assured Rankin and the board that for sure he knows of three, with the possibility of five.
The idea is to use the RFP to hire a firm that could then not only work on Hays High School, but also use the RFP to work on all the buildings in entire district.
“The goal is not for one building in the district, but the district as a whole,” Vaughn said.
The board will now seek the qualifications from firms to identify, design, guarantee, install, maintain, monitor and help arrange financing for a strategic facilities improvement program.
The district intends to select one firm and award a single contract to perform the facility improvement program. The contract will be for up to five years with two three-year renewal options, at the discretion of the district.
USD 489 Superintendent John Thissen identified a timeline in selecting a firm so work can begin as soon as this upcoming summer.
“Selecting a firm by the middle of December, with the schedule of the RFP, it gives us the opportunity to begin this summer,” he said.
The board also reviewed the presentations from the three architectural firms — all vying to be given the chance to work with USD 489 toward a successful bond election after last June’s failed.
The board reviewed Hollis and Miller; Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey Architectural Firm; and DLR Group.
“Very pleased with all of them,” Thissen said. “Any one of them could do the job that we need them to do.”
While Thissen and board members shared the same impressions of the three architectural firms, they are not in any hurry to hire a firm at this point.
“More investigations need to happen before we pick one for us,” Thissen said.
Thissen would like to see more from the firms than just what was seen in their individual presentations.
In an effort to go beyond the presentations, Thissen would like to visit each of the firms at their offices.
Thissen, who was superintendent at Herrington when that district passed a bond issues eight years ago, spoke on the value of seeing the firms in their offices.
“It’s important to get into their offices and see how they operate,” Thissen said.
Not all board members agreed.
Board member Josh Waddell disagreed with Thissen stating that there is no need to spend a lot of money to travel the state.
“They are all excellent firms and the chances that we are going to dig up skeletons when we go see them are not likely,” Waddell said. “We have their references. We are better off contacting them than spending the money to see them.”
Thissen said he would offer an estimate of travel costs to present to the board.
Also passing at the board meeting and work session Monday night was the transportation purchase to update the fleet of vehicles for the district of two Suburbans and two buses. The cost of the additions was $265,525.50.
The Hays High roof storm repair bid was also approved.