School board to seek construction manager for new HQ

Wichita school district leaders said a new process for bidding work will save time and money as they convert the former Southeast High School into a new district headquarters.

The school board voted unanimously Monday to proceed with an approach called construction at-risk management, in which the district will select a construction manager to work with designers before various parts of the project go out for competitive bids.

“We do believe this would be the best approach as we look at the renovations that are needed” for what will become the new Alvin E. Morris Administration Center, said superintendent John Allison.

The district used the process for the construction of the new Southeast High School at 127th Street East and Pawnee, the largest and most expensive project of the 2008 bond issue. Dondlinger Construction was selected over four other firms who submitted applications and made pitches for that project.

Kenton Cox of Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey, the district’s bond manager, said the process makes sense for large projects and ones that require coordination between designers and contractors. The district will issue requests for proposals from possible construction managers on Sept. 27 and interview prospective firms in late October, Cox said.

The board is scheduled to select its construction manager on Nov. 7, according to a schedule Cox presented Monday.

The district plans to convert the former Southeast High, at Lincoln and Edgemoor, into a new district headquarters building. The district has sold its current headquarters building at 201 N. Water to developer David Burk and plans call for the district to vacate the building by this time next year, Cox said.

Cox called the schedule “doable but tight.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 8:58 PM with the headline "School board to seek construction manager for new HQ."