Board considers Salmen reconstruction bids

Lowest bid rejected on legalities; committee recommends approval of bid from Roy Anderson Corp.

By Debbie Glover
St. Tammany News
Published on Monday, June 9, 2008 9:47 AM CDT

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The St. Tammany Parish School Board definitely does not take summers off.

Among items discussed at Thursday’s three-hour Committee as a Whole meeting for business affairs and administrative matters were Operation Jumpstart, construction projects and the pupil progression plan.

The committee recommended approval for a pilot summer program for Operation Jumpstart as a possible measure for modifying the length of expulsion for students who successfully complete the session and meet certain criteria. Cases will be reviewed individually to determine the remaining length of time needed before returning to regular classes.

The construction bids to rebuild of Salmen High School were reviewed and discussed. Although the lowest bid was from JRDKS, LLC for $41.7 million, it was rejected for not meeting the bid requirements of using an approved surety bond company as well as not meeting other criteria, including not attending pre-bid conferences. Since the original estimate by the board was $30 million for the reconstruction and FEMA’s estimate was $45 million, consideration was given to reject all bids and start over. Due to time constraints and other legal issues, this motion was defeated, 11-1, and the bid by Roy Anderson Corp. was recommended for approval, 12-0.

The committee also recommended acceptance of the Mandeville High School end zone bleachers and ADA modifications as substantially complete as well as the visitor bleachers at Pearl River High School.

The monthly construction, maintenance and custodial, risk management and transportation reports were also recommended for approval.

Denise Barnes, senior supervisor of curriculum and instruction, presented the revised pupil progression plan for 2008-2009. Some of the changes to the plan include additional credit requirements to graduate from incoming freshman of 2008-2009; requirements for exam exemptions; modifications to the credit recovery policy; and changes to basal reading assessments.

The committee unanimously recommended approval of the changes.

An executive session concerning expulsion appeals followed the meeting.

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