Taxpayers Not Paying for School Redesign- Completion of Schools Delayed until March

By Dave Freneaux

    In Monday’s School Board meeting the Central Community School System, PBK Architects and Arkel International agreed that the $600,000 price tag for structural steel redesign on Central’s new schools should not be paid by the taxpayers of Central.

    Agreements were drafted which pay Arkel, the General Contractor, $600,000 to compensate for materials and delays resulting from the redesign of the steel structure of the buildings.  That $600,000 will be deducted from the fees paid to PBK Architects for their services.     

    PBK has taken the stance that the School System and the Contractor had nothing to do with the design errors and should thus not be penalized or further delayed by the issue.  As a part of the agreements, the new target completion dates for both the intermediate and middle schools is March 15, 2012.

    In other business the School Board accepted a draft of the new Drug Testing Policy and is forwarding it to committee for review.  The policy can be seen at www.CentralCSS.org under “School Board” under the “Policies” tab.  Once reviewed by committee the policy will likely come back to the full School Board for final corrections and approval.  Anyone wishing to be heard on the matter should contact their School Board member and plan on attending future School Board meetings.