REGIONAL- St. Louis County School Board members agreed at their Nov. 23 meeting to move forward with repairs to numerous building deficiencies in the district, resigned to the uncertainty of whether or not they’ll be able to recoup any of their investments from former contractors they believe were negligent in their work.
Having reviewed and discussed a list of 23 different building projects at a working meeting earlier in the month, board members were asked at this meeting to review and prioritize a list of nine facility projects compiled by director of facilities and grounds Derek Wudinich. The list included:
A sinking floor in the band/choir room at South Ridge.
Fire suppression/day tanks and pumps for water towers at North Woods and South Ridge.
North Woods and South Ridge wastewater treatment upgrades.
Broken plumbing and sinking floors at the North Woods concession stand
Door lock hardware change-outs/re-keying at Northeast Range.
North Woods parking lot drainage issues.
North Woods football field repair and upgrade.
Northeast Range and Tower-Soudan roofing.
An electronic sign for North Woods similar to those at other district schools
As presented, six of the items came with an estimated cost of $2.9 million, with amounts undetermined for the sinking band/choir room floor, the roofing projects, and the electronic sign, projects that together would boost the total over $3 million. The largest single estimated expense of $1.5 million was for the football field at North Woods.
Superintendent Reggie Engebritson was quick to note that the football field estimate at this point is only a high-side rough estimate unsupported by a formal architectural/engineering study, and that preliminary conversations have suggested the actual projected costs could come in well under $1 million.
Members also referred back to the earlier working meeting in regard to the $265,396 estimate received from Max Gray Construction for repairing the North Woods concession stand, an amount that in some housing markets would be enough to build a new 2,000-square-foot house. They agreed that they wanted more information on an alternative that would involve repairing only the bathrooms in the building and possibly using a food truck for serving concessions.
They also quickly agreed that the health and safety concerns presented by the water tower and wastewater issues at North Woods and South Ridge warranted high priority. The water towers were built too large for stored water to be sufficiently used and stirred by daily school use, creating conditions where the excess water will freeze in the winter. That potentially compromises using that water in case of a fire, so a possible fix would be to install ground tanks and pumps. Both wastewater ponds need to be expanded and shored up.
Board member Chris Koivisto, who represents the Northeast Range area, argued that the situation with the doors and locks at the Babbitt school presents safety concerns that should take priority over repairing the concession stand at North Woods.
“The hardware change-out and re-keying at Northeast Range is just ongoing,” Koivisto said. “We’re currently unable to fix door locks and lock doors. It’s kind of a safety issue. The problem is the doors have been hacked into by subpar fixes, so now you can’t put a different doorknob in the door to upgrade the doorknob to a passkey. It’s messed up. To me, that’s a priority.”
While noting that the cost would undoubtedly be more expensive than the current estimate, Koivisto recommended that the district investigate the possibility of replacing the key-based system with a programmable electronic key card system like those used in other schools and businesses for many years.
Board chair Dan Manick said that wastewater treatment upgrades at South Ridge should probably take priority over those at North Woods.
“I think North Woods is always going to be isolated, and with that enrollment I don’t think we need to worry so much about growth,” he said. “But at South Ridge, maybe our enrollment is going to grow by 100 students.”
Koivisto also questioned having the roofing projects on the list of projects, arguing that instead the district should include them in an overall long-term scheduled roofing plan for all the district’s buildings.
“I’ve always been a proponent that roofs should all be separate,” he said. “We should have a regular roofing cycle, something we always plan for and accommodate. Roofs are cyclical, they only last about 15 years. We’ve got a pretty good survey recently of all the roofs and what age each of the parts are. I just think we’ve got to put money on the side (for this) because that’s never going to go away.”
Before agreeing to the priority list, member Troy Swanson asked the multi-million dollar question.
“Do we have funds for all of the things on the list?” he asked.
“No,” Koivisto said. “That’s why we have to prioritize.”
Members ultimately decided to keep the list in the order the items were presented.
Contractor issues
Six of the items on the list presented, as well as numerous others discussed at the working meeting, are directly related to issues with the construction of the North Woods and South Ridge schools.
Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI), Kraus-Anderson and Architectural Resources Inc. were the primary designers and contractors involved in building the two schools— South Ridge in 2011 and North Woods in 2012, totaling $60 million of an overall $78.8 million school restructuring plan.
Work was ongoing in the spring of 2011 on Cherry and South Ridge schools when it was discovered that JCI had approved more than $3.5 million worth of change orders without the knowledge of the school board and in violation of the school district’s contract with JCI. Elimination of skylights, insulation, exterior and interior window caulking, and high-efficiency LED lighting were among the changes JCI approved that likely reduced the operating efficiency of the buildings from what was planned.
Suggestions of legal action against the contractors in 2019 generated some discussion but went nowhere, leaving all the issues unaddressed. This past March, Engebritson contacted a Twin Cities attorney who specializes in construction-related cases, but as of yet there’s been no confirmation that they would take on the district as a client.
Given the long term nature of many of the problems and the need to make repairs before they get any worse, Manick was clear about how the district should proceed.
“All we can do is move forward with our own funding,” he said. “We haven’t totally slammed the door. We are still talking and reaching out to people to see if there’s any help we can get, but we need to proceed as if we’re just footing the bill.”
Engebritson reinforced the difficulties of getting the contractors to take financial responsibility for the repairs.
“The district continues to explore all options regarding financial sources for building repairs,” she said in a follow-up email to the Timberjay. “Given the amount of time that has passed, and companies that no longer exist, plus decisions that were made at the time of construction, we have some roadblocks that we may not be able to overcome. At some point, we need to decide what needs to be corrected now, using funds we have, in order to move forward and be able to use our facilities to the fullest extent possible.”