State requires architect assistance on school improvements


Upcoming school improvement projects in the Weiser School District will be overseen by an architect that will be selected from firms that respond to a request for qualifications, due at the end of January. Photo by Nancy Grindstaff
By: 
Nancy Grindstaff
As the Weiser School District prepares to move forward on a series of school modernization projects, the first step is for the board of trustees to choose an architectural firm to draw specifications and review bids pertaining to each plan.
 During the Monday, Jan. 13 regular monthly school board meeting, Superintendent Kenneth Dewlen reported that deputy clerk Barbara Choate had put together a request for qualifications (RFQ) to find an architect to work with the district.
 “That is required by Idaho code, and you will be voting to choose the architect you like next month,” Dewlen said.
 Choate further explained the reasoning behind the RFQ as part of her monthly financial report, saying the legal notice for the request would run for two weeks in the Weiser Signal American (see page 9 of today’s edition).
 “I went through the ISBA listing of vendors that were at the ISBA annual conference,” Choate told the trustees. “There were seven architectural companies there, and I will be sending out the packet to them tomorrow. I also reached out to Beniton Construction because they have been our construction manager on a number of projects we have had here, and they gave me names of three other architects.
 “While we hope architects will see the posting, or also through the snooping tools that are out there, it will go out to these architects,” she said. “A lot of architectural firms (and contractors) will find postings for those kinds of things because of the software they put in place to be able to see that posting.”
 Choate explained the state’s requirements for requests for qualifications to the board.
 “Idaho code does not allow us to determine an architect, or construction manager if we choose to go that route, based on the cost,” she said. “It is one of the few bid processes or qualification processes that doesn’t allow a dollar sign to be included anywhere in there. The state does not want a decision made on the constructional soundness of any building based on the least expensive, they want it based on the licensure, the qualifications, and the true history that architect has in doing the jobs we’re asking them to do.”
 The packets from interested architects are due to the district no later than Jan. 31.
 “Kyla (Dickerson) and I will go through those packets on Feb. 3, and ensure they have met and answered all of the questions we have included in that RFQ, and then on Feb. 6, the board has a special board meeting, and you will actually interview all of those architectural firms that met the RFQ requirements,” Choate told the board. 
 “You will have a scoring rubric that you’ll go through and identify who you select based on how they presented themselves, both on paper and the proposals they present, as well as any interview questions you ask them,” she said. “It will be a long day for you on the 6th if all of them reply.”
 Based on the determination made after the Feb. 6 interviews, the trustees will make their decision and move for its approval during the Feb. 10 board meeting.
 Choate added that Superintendent Dewlen has assigned the district’s maintenance supervisor Eric Pfeiffer with gathering preliminary financial information and available contractors for the projects that are identified in the 10-year plan.
 “We can take no action on those because the majority of them are greater than $100k in expenditure, which requires them to go to a formal bid process,” Choate described. “That’s where the architect will come in and help us. They will draw out the legal specifications, the lats and longs of everything we want to do, and assist us with creating the (bid) document. 
 “The board will still award the bid to the vendor they choose to award it to, but the architect will assist us with their knowledge of true structural soundness and knowledge of the market and industry, (such as, for new roofs),” she said. “They’re going to have knowledge of what that structure is, and who is qualified to do that. It will ensure that those vendors are the ones who respond to our bid notification. So, that’s how they really come in and help us.”

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