The Marion County School Board has denied a contractor’s request to extend a deadline to repair doors and windows at North Marion High School nearly four months after a subcontractor removed and replaced the windows at the school with plywood boards.
The change order was denied during the Marion County School Board’s regular meeting on Tuesday, September 10. Four school board members voted against the request, while Chairwoman Nancy Thrower voted in favor of it.
On Tuesday, board members spent 45 minutes discussing the contract and the associated change order submitted by Gray Construction Services, Inc.
The contract called for door and window replacement at NMHS for $1,998,882. It was approved on February 27, 2024. The scope of work consists of removing/replacing exterior windows and storefronts with new, insulated windows, and removing/replacing interior door panels and door hardware.
The change order, which was submitted as part of the consent agenda, was pulled for discussion by Board Member Dr. Sarah James.
“I don’t know if any of you have ventured out to North Marion High School since the start of school yet, but they have plywood for windows,” said Dr. James, who mentioned that she visited the school last week to have lunch with her mentee. James said she pulled the item so that the board could discuss how it holds “contractors accountable who are not doing the job that they were hired to do.”
On Monday, students at North Marion High School produced a special report on the windows during their morning news broadcast, joking that the school was preparing for the “zombie apocalypse.”
According to the contract, the project was originally expected to be “substantially” complete by August 31, 2024. A final completion date for the project was set for September 30, 2024.
On July 1, a delay in the delivery of “egress windows” resulted in a delay in the timeline, according to the contractor. At the time the windows, which had been scheduled to arrive on August 2, were delayed until October 11.
During this week’s school board meeting, James reiterated several times that she didn’t believe the delay should be attributed to the manufacturer. She said that although she wasn’t aware of the traditional “lead time” on these types of items, there was a delay in simply ordering the part.
“The project was supposed to be largely done by August 31, and the part wasn’t even ordered until June 21,” said James. Later on in her comments, she clarified how she felt about the reported delay.
“I find it hard to believe that a manufacturer delay is the reason for this project delaying. I do believe it’s because things weren’t ordered properly and now we have ourselves in a position where we have students in improper conditions,” said James. “I would love to see somebody provide evidence of whose responsible for this delay and when it would have been finished if it had really arrived on August 2. If that’s the case, and it’s really just a manufacturer delay, than I guess that’s just a really unfortunate circumstance. But I’m not convinced of that being the case.”
Citing the original contract, James said the board should consider collecting $1,000 a day from the contractor until the timeline to “substantial completion” was met.
“I’m bringing this item before the board because there is not a consensus from staff that I have received on who is responsible for why this project isn’t done. I would like to get there, because, $1,000 a day, at 45 days, is $45,000. Which, I would love to capture any amount of money that we are owed back to us in the form of a credit for a project not getting done,” said James.
James further stated that although she could appreciate that the subcontractor in the matter had been placed on the not-preferred list by the district, the lead contractor should still be “responsible for the subscontractor not doing their work.”
“And ultimately, someone needs to held responsible for the fact that there’s no windows at North Marion High School. Because they replaced some of the frames, but then the drop-ceiling tracts had to be removed. So there are huge gaps in the drop-ceiling, completely missing. So hot air is pouring into the classrooms. The rooms are not temperature controlled,” said James.
She went on to say that someone needed to be held accountable and that they needed to stay on top of their contractors and subcontractors.
“I brought this and pulled this item because I want the board to begin a stronger stance that we are going to hold all of our contractors accountable for the deadlines that are set. And if they fail to make them and it impacts our student learning, that’s a problem and there should be some level of financial responsibility for that,” said James.
Several of her fellow board members agreed.
“We need to make sure there is some accountability,” said board member Eric Cummings. “I do understand that there is going to be delays. Sometimes, I think they look at the school system as an easy target and just kind of take advantage of some things. We need to make sure we are on top of it.”
“This is a tricky conversation. We all know that there are many delays in building right now,” said board member Lori Conrad. “This gives us the opportunity to evaluate what we’re asking for and what we expect and so there’s room for improvement in that area moving forward.”
Conrad expressed an interest in holding the contractor financially responsible.
Chairwoman Nancy Thrower, who voted to approve the contract order requesting a deadline extension, said that the subcontractor being penalized by being removed from the district’s preferred list had greater implications than any additional measures that could be taken.
“To be removed from a preferred list from a school district that has a lot of money to spend, and we’re going to be spending a lot of money, we know we need more, we have a lot of projects to do, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be that easy for them to get that piece of the pie moving forward. As they shouldn’t,” said Thrower. “Because I don’t like the sound of, not to mention the aesthetics, but, just, having cheap plywood covering window openings. I think about the safety factor of that.”
Thrower said that she didn’t want to single out this particular item without giving consideration to all of the projects the school was managing.
“I would kind of like to know what we’ve done in the past in these situations, and I can get behind this just in the sense that since we’re already working on procedures and policies, let’s make sure we have one that’s going to apply to everyone. If we’re going to move beyond penalizing the subcontractor, then I think that we need to make sure that if it’s going to apply to this contractor, that it would apply to any contractor,” said Thrower.
After additional discussion by the school district’s attorney and the board, Marion County Public Schools Senior Executive Director of Operations Barbara Dobbins provided additional insight. Dobbins, who works directly with the contractors, said that any potential penalty should lie with the subcontractor. She said that most projects “go past the substantial time” and stressed the importance of maintaining good relationships with contractors.
“Most of our projects go past that substantial time, and so picking [this project] apart to this level, in my opinion, is concerning,” said Dobbins. She stated that the county has to maintain a relationship with “18 contractors” and that it’s more difficult than it once was.
“When you only had 2 subcontractors to choose from and you went with the local subcontractor to give them a chance and they failed, well, that’s a lesson learned for all of us,” said Dobbins. She went on to suggest that the subcontractor being put on the “not preferred list” would result in them losing money in the county.
Dobbins said that if they didn’t get the extension, the contractor would not have the windows put in by the deadline.
“I do have faith and great respect for the company that has done great work for Marion County in the past. I do believe that they’re going to go very quickly without interrupting that campus when those windows come in. I respect what we need to do. If we need to look for a settlement, I have no problem with that. But to say that we’re just going to do this every single time, I just, I’m concerned about maintaining relationships with construction managers and picking apart the job to a certain level,” said Dobbins.
In closing, Cummings made one last remark:
“I too am concerned about the relationship part…but we do have to hold people accountable, because the community’s going to hold us accountable. We keep saying ‘what’s best for kids;’ it’s not going to be best for kids to sit a whole semester in a school without windows. That’s not good. We have to put some teeth to the things that we’re saying and hold people accountable.”
