HOUSTON – Sept. 13, 2017 – The Spring ISD Board of Trustees on Tuesday agreed to authorize the district to negotiate contracts with two firms to provide construction manager at risk (CMAR) services on selected 2016 bond projects.
“We are very excited to be at this point in our bond program,” said Chief Operations Officer Mark Miranda, after giving the trustees an update at Tuesday’s meeting. “We’re still on target despite the events of the past few weeks.”
The firm of Satterfield & Pontikes won the majority of the bond work and was selected as the CMAR on the following three project packages:
- Spring High School Stadium and 9th Grade Center
- Roberson Middle School and Westfield High School 9th Grade Center
- New Middle School across from Northgate Crossing Elementary
For the Police Command Center, the firm of Division One was selected.
The CMAR contracting method will allow the district to increase coordination with the design team and will allow the projects to move forward more quickly on construction site work, Miranda said. For the Police Command Center, Miranda said the goal is to start bidding out that work as early as the end of the year.
In recommending the two firms approved by the Trustees, the district went through a two-step process that began with a pool of 13 firms that responded to the Request for Qualifications released over the summer.
From there, the district evaluated those firms against several criteria, including quality of work, relevant experience, safety record, project management and financial stability. Qualified firms were then invited to submit cost proposals for construction services. Satterfield & Pontikes, as well as Division One, ended up as the two top firms for their corresponding projects.
Miranda noted that design work has already begun on the majority of the projects within the bond program and that architects have been meeting with administrators and educators to discuss the specific needs of each one.
He assured the board that as soon as groundbreaking dates are known, he would share the news. “Those milestones will bring us one step closer to opening new schools and facilities for our students,” he said after the meeting. “We are all looking forward to that.”