EDITORIAL: School district’s tough spot

Published 1:00 pm Friday, September 2, 2022

The Baker School District faces quite a quandary.

Less than 16 months after voters in the district decided to raise their property taxes for capital improvements — the first such tax levy approved since 1948 — the district’s ability to deliver what it proposed to do with those tax dollars is in jeopardy.

The culprits are familiar factors in the COVID-19 world, including inflation and supply chain issues that have driven up the cost of construction.

The bottom line is that the biggest project the district plans to undertake thanks to the $4 million tax levy — constructing a 5,000-square-foot cafeteria/multipurpose building at Baker Middle School, which lacks a cafeteria — would as conceived cost considerably more than the district estimated. The lone bid the district received last month was $9.1 million, about twice the amount the district had budgeted.

(The total budget for improvements across the district is $14.5 million, and includes, besides the $4 million tax levy, a $4 million state grant, $2 million from another state program, $2 million from the district’s capital budget and $1.5 million in federal COVID aid, among other sources.)

The Baker School Board had no plausible option other than to reject the $9.1 million bid. To accept it would have left the district unable to do many of the other projects that it touted when it put the levy on the May 2021 ballot.

That list includes improving the security systems and heating, air conditioning and ventilation at all district schools.

Unfortunately, it appears that some of the other work will also cost more than the district initially projected. Work at South Baker, including a new roof, is now estimated at $3 million; the district budgeted $1.8 million.

The district has awarded contracts for improvements at Brooklyn Primary and the HVAC system at the middle school.

Board chair Julie Huntington and superintendent Erin Lair said the plan now, with the middle school cafeteria and security and HVAC projects at other schools, is to try to find a construction manager/general contractor that can work with district officials to try to figure out a way to do work that meets the district’s needs and is within its budget. Based on the difference between the lone bid for the cafeteria and the district’s budget, that looks to be a daunting challenge.

But board members and district officials have little choice but to try a different approach. As Huntington noted, they understand the responsibility they have to voters who made the historic decision last year to approve the levy.

The board will talk about the new strategy during a special board meeting at noon on Sept. 12 in the district office, 2090 Fourth St. That meeting will include a public hearing for the board to potentially exempt the bond-related projects from competitive bidding, allowing the district to hire a construction manager/general contractor. That firm would be picked “through a competitive negotiation process in accordance with the cost and qualification-based process authorized by the District’s Board of Directors,” according to a district document.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor