Wade Cole of ORB management company made a presentation to the school board at its January meeting about the planning for the community center. The map in back of Cole displayed three potential sites for the center. One of the sites under consideration might include building on school land, but no final site has been picked yet, said Cole.
Wade Cole of ORB management came before the school board on January 19, 2011 with a proposal to provide the school district with a cost estimate for two plans that would reduce space used in the school. Because of declining enrollment, School District 166 needs less classroom and office space to meet the needs of the students.
Under terms of the agreement, ORB would be paid at an hourly rate of $95 not to exceed $3,000 for pre-construction planning and cost estimating. This would not include architectural drawings.
The plans would entail “shrinking” the space of the school, thereby allowing the district to save money by not heating, lighting, cleaning etc. certain areas of the building.
Superintendent Beth Schwarz provided the board with two scenarios, one a full-reorganization plan and the other a scaled back reorganization plan. Either, if implemented, said Schwarz, would save the district about $18,000 per year.
Benefits of a full-reorganization would include improved safety, improved efficiency, improved aesthetics and the potential for revenue if space could be rented out to the private sector, said Schwarz.
However, noted Schwarz, the cost for this plan could be quite high and the district is short of cash right now.
Both plans promote increased safety and efficiency by closing off many of the building’s 23 doors, said Schwarz. “Face it, right now we don’t always know who is in the building because we have so many entry points.”
The scaled back plan would cost very little to achieve, Schwarz said. The focus of this plan would be to house the K-12 administrative office with the secondary office. The district office and community education administration would move to the current elementary office and the ECFE would relocate to rooms across from the kindergarten/preschool. The elementary special education office would be housed in a classroom and the youth program staff would relocate to either a classroom or the elementary office.
“We’re looking at moving one wall and maybe getting some new carpeting,” Schwarz said.
“We would save $18,000 per year under this plan because we wouldn’t need a copier in the office and that would save $8,000 per year. Mike Groth (Head Custodian) has gone over the costs and figured we would conservatively save $10,000 per year by not paying for cleaning, heat, and lights,” said Schwarz.
But new school board member Deb White held up the ORB contract and said that her daughter, an attorney, had gone over it, and pointed out quite a few deficiencies in the contract language. Most, if not all of the liability would fall to the district if there were any mistakes made by ORB.
Cole said that he would “offer a personal guarantee” against any mistakes.
“This is taxpayer money. It’s not our money to throw around. Put your words on paper,” White said to Cole.
White and School Board Member Leonard Sobanja also asked the board to consider bringing in a couple of contractors to get their estimates and opinions for the smaller of the two proposals.
“Why do we have to pay a consultant when we can get this information for free?” asked White.
Cook County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja, who was sitting with Cole, responded, “If ORB does the work all of the contractors will bid on the same project.”
Schwarz added that she has no expertise in the construction field and feels it prudent to rely on experts like ORB’s employees to guide her through this process.
After a lengthy discussion, the board voted 3-2 to award ORB a contract not to exceed $3,000 to come up with cost estimates to reorganize space in the school. School Board Members Leonard Sobanja and Deb White voted against the measure while Board Members Jeanne Anderson, Rod Wannebo and Mary Sanders voted for the proposal with the agreement that the school district’s attorney look over the contract and approve or modify it to protect the district.
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