District 6 officials defended their handling of the Meeker Elementary School rebuild at the district board meeting

April 24--Community members questioned how Greeley-Evans School District 6 handled contracts for the reconstruction process at Meeker Elementary School at the district's board of education meeting Monday night, but district officials defended their decisions.

The district contracted with Denver-based DLR Group and Loveland-based DS Constructors to rebuild Meeker, which was destroyed by a flood in November. District Superintendent Deirdre Pilch signed the contracts using an emergency provision that lets public entities sign contracts without holding a competitive bidding process or publicly voting on them.

J.W. Nelson, who works for Greeley-based Growling Bear Construction and was the district's construction manager for 31 years, said the district should have given local businesses, like his and Roche Constructors, notice before it contracted with ones from out of town. He also contended the $314,800 the district paid DLR Group for "programming and planning to determine the best conceptual design plans as well as code analysis, architectural design and permitting documents" was three times more than building design should cost.

"These events are both outrageous and unacceptable," Nelson said.

Pilch said the district contracted with DS Constructors to rebuild Meeker because it used DS to remodel Fred Tjardes School of Innovation and had a "positive relationship" with it. She defended the district's expediting the process with its need to have Meeker finished by the start of next school year.

"We needed somebody right away," Pilch said. "To possibly delay by additional weeks or months was not acceptable."

Pilch said the district's insurance company will not after this year cover rent to house Meeker's students and teachers at Generations Church, which has been their home since the flood, nor will it continue pay for the charter buses that get them there every day.

District Chief Financial Officer Meggan Sponsler said the district paid DLR for more than just design, but also for "monitoring and on-site advising." DLR's fees were also higher than normal because the district asked them to finish their designs more quickly than usual, Pilch said. Pilch added that one of DLR's employees was involved in Meeker's original design in the 1970s, and the district liked that familiarity.

The reconstruction of Meeker began in March and is scheduled to finish before the start of the 2018-19 school year.

-- Tommy Wood covers education and Evans city government for The Tribune. You can reach him at (970) 392-4470, twood@greeleytribune.com or on Twitter @woodstein72.

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