HUTTO – The passage of the $522 million bond package May 6 was just the beginning of a long process of growth for Hutto Independent School District. Now that the funds are approved, the ISD must come up with a strategy for achieving the goals they promised the public in their bond campaign.
Henry Gideon, assistant superintendent of operations, presented the board with an initial plan for the first steps in that strategy at the May 11 meeting.
“When you think about the possibility that we may be doing about a hundred million dollars worth of construction a year, we’re going to need increasing capacity and we’re going to want some in-house as well as third-party support,” Gideon said.
His plan includes possibly adding an inhouse field engineer to keep projects under control.
Another recommendation for controlling the multitude of upcoming projects is for the board to increase the number of members on the bond and capital improvement oversight committee.
Gideon said that having more members on the committee will give the board more feedback and also be a way of having more people who can go out in the community and be transparent about what’s being done with the bond money.
“Telling the story is going to be very important,” he said.
“We need to find out if the sitting committee members want to continue serving and if we have more members who want to serve we need to come up with an application process to make it fair for people who want to be part of it,” said Board President Billie Logiudice.
Much of Gideon’s presentation centered on establish the procedures and controls to ensure the bond projects are kept on track and within budget. It covered topics including: · Researching site development and infrastructure challenges · Developing a five year/seven year building prioritization · Establishing project scopes to monitor budget expenses and enforcing budget parameters · Developing procurement strategies · Updating the RFQ and RFP processes along with standard contract templates · Developing standard contract document templates · Adopting a new “prevailing wage survey” clause for all contractors · Updating the Inter-Local Agreement with the city.
One of the tenets Gideon hammered home during the meeting was the concept of sticking to a schedule and a budget without expensive change orders.
“Design to the budget, build to the budget,” he said. “We will have enormous soft costs with respect to infrastructure and offsite improvements, we must be careful with all the authorities having jurisdiction and their demands.”
Superintendent Dr. Celina Estrada Thomas said that sound financial practices will be at the forefront of every decision concerning the bond.
“Anytime you seek the community’s support in a bond election, you are asking your stakeholders to trust District leadership with tax-funded projects and to follow through with the promises we make. As we have done with past bond elections, we will strive to maintain your trust, which is most important to us,” she said. The district has established a webpage that will be updated throughout the bond and expansion process, at www. hipponation.org/bond.
