SOME BURTON ISD BOND CONTRACTS NOT SIGNED BY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR MONTHS
Burton ISD trustees learned on Monday that several contracts pertaining to the school bond construction project were unsigned by school administration, with some dating back to last year.
begin service on the Burton School Board
during its meeting on Monday.
During a public forum to provide updates on the project, DSA Construction Management Project Manager Stad Tomlinson informed the board that roughly 20 contracts were filled out and sent to the school district for signature, but some were not received back.
Tomlinson confirmed that Interim Burton ISD Superintendent Rob Barnwell has copies of all contracts that have been signed by both the contractors and the school district, and there are about eight of those contracts. As for the remaining ones that were not signed by the school district, Tomlinson said they go as far back as March or April of 2023.
Tomlinson said many of those outstanding contracts involved items from contractors that were scheduled to come along later down the line and have not started work yet. He said DSA was told that the district did not want to sign them until all the numbers were “squared away.”
Trustees asked why they and the public were not informed of this situation sooner. Some audience members expressed frustration at not seeing progress in construction despite seeing money spent at board meetings. Trustee Demetrius Colvin Sr. said the board was proactive with everything that needed to be done to move forward with the project, but he could not understand it if this situation ended up being the reason for the hold-up in progress. Trustee Dean Fuchs said his biggest concern is that if a contractor never got a signed contract back from the district, the company would not be obligated to honor it.
office on Monday for his new term on the
Burton School Board.
Board Vice President Misty Lucherk asked Tomlinson if the school district is currently doing work with any companies that it does not have a signed contract with. He replied that of the companies that have actually done work out at the site, there are none that do not have a signed contract. He added that since the contractors themselves have signed the contracts, he believes they will still honor them.
Update 5/15: Barnwell told KWHI on Wednesday that the fact that some of these contracts were not dealt with for so long is concerning and “doesn’t make sense.” He said while the contracts may apply mainly to pieces of the bond project that have not yet gotten underway, the project has been “dragging on” as is, and this does nothing to alleviate the frustration that has been ongoing and building.
The public forum preceded the board’s regular meeting, which opened with the canvassing of results from the May 4th election and the swearing in of new trustees Ande Bostain and Mike Clyde. The board opted to keep the same officer structure, renaming Jeff Harmel as president of the board, Lucherk as vice president and Donna Putnam as secretary.
Later, the board discussed revising the district’s policy for locally-provided leave for employees. Barnwell said the district currently provides two local days of leave, but the average for surrounding districts is between four and seven days. Trustees were open to potentially increasing the number of days offered and approved a motion to ask Barnwell and school principals to develop guidelines for leave policy, to be presented at the next board meeting.
The board also approved adding a local policy to accommodate the offering of professional non-certified contracts to positions of importance who do not qualify for regular Chapter 21 contracts. Barnwell said this allows the district to offer contracts with some protections for certain administrative positions, like a business manager or technology director, that may not be certified but still retain a high level of importance.