Wichita school board to pay bond manager additional $720,000

Wichita school board members voted Monday to pay their bond manager an additional $720,000 over the next two years.

An addendum to the district’s contract with Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture will award the firm $40,000 a month this year and $20,000 a month next year to continue managing the bond issue.

That amount is in addition to the $3.7 million – 1 percent of the total of the bond issue – the firm was awarded under its initial contract with the district, which ended in December.

Board member Lynn Rogers blamed state lawmakers for the additional expense, saying the district had to put bond issue projects on hold in 2011 and re-evaluate priorities after the state cut capital outlay funding.

“This is the cost of the state not doing what they said they were going to do,” Rogers said.

“We held back for two years when we did our pause and study, but the Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey team did not stop working for us,” he said. “We had them do more on reanalysis.”

Shortly after voters approved the $370 million bond issue in 2008, the district hired Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey as bond manager. The firm also managed the district’s 2000 bond issue.

The firm creates project timelines, coordinates bidding, helps with property acquisition, works with district officials to keep the public up to date on projects, prepares cost reports and helps develop design standards that serve as guidelines for bond work, among other duties.

Rogers said the firm’s 1 percent fee is lower than what bond managers charge in many other districts and is worth the cost, particularly because the firm has helped keep most bond projects at or under budget.

“The services they provide are very important to us. We as a district have not added staff to do what we ask them to do,” Rogers said.

Board member Betty Arnold also thanked the bond managers on Monday.

“They have contributed so much to us, and they do this willingly. The great thing about it, they don’t do it for public attention,” she said.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking the time when you have the opportunity to say thank you to a company that has done so well by us.”

The board voted 4-0 to approve the contract addendum. Board members Sheril Logan, Barbara Fuller and Joy Eakins were absent.

This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Wichita school board to pay bond manager additional $720,000."