May 22, 2024
School board get update for May
Last week, the school district took possession of the land that will become the site of the new Career & Technical Education high school. The 37-acre parcel valued at more than $2.8 million was donated by Grow Odessa. The CTE high school planning committee has now met four times, the most recent on April 23, and has made site visits to CTE Centers in Abilene and Hobbs, New Mexico.
Trustees then received a report on the site visit made by our middle school planning committee. A group of 10 traveled to Lewisville to see Griffin Middle School, designed by PBK, the same architecture firm that will be designing ECISD’s new middle school.
On April 19, representatives from Parkhill visited Odessa to see the Transportation Center (both the existing bus barn and the property for the new facility) and the auditorium at Permian High School which will be completely renovated.
In the first completed portion of the bond, all of the middle school tennis courts have been resurfaced and are ready for the fall tennis season.
Looking at the budget, a little more than $4.3 million has been spent (1% of the total bond) and about $22.7 million is encumbered (meaning purchase orders have been issued; 5% of the total bond).
The first round of bonds was offered to investors on May 14. All bonds were sold with an average interest rate of 3.77% which is below the estimated (3.84) rate presented to the board in the preliminary financing plan in March. Due to the lower interest rate than anticipated, the payments are expected to be nearly $3 million less over the life of the bonds. Good news for local taxpayers. A second bond sale will take place on June 5.
A Request for Qualifications for a Third-Party Oversight firm has now closed, and a recommendation is expected in June. ECISD Operations is also working with Gordian on contract language for Priority I and Priority II items, with Gordian performing a skilled trade vendor outreach.
In a series of action items:
· Trustees voted 7-0 to approve purchases over $50,000 related to the bond. The three items on this list are $4.8 million for geotechnical and materials testing services for the current and future builds ECISD may have for Bond 2023 projects, and $800,000 for the purchase of property on South Tripp Avenue for the new middle school. The district is purchasing two additional acres for the middle school project. And, $5.9 million for Construction Manager at Risk to manage the construction projects, and to act as consultant during the design and planning phase.
· Trustees voted 7-0 to approve switching banks from The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A. as the paying agent/registrar for two outstanding series of bonds to UMB Bank, N.A.
· This item was pulled from the agenda as the contract is not yet complete.
· Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the DLR Group as the architect for the new Transition Learning Center.
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