New Football Field for the High School hits a Snag

New Football Field for the High School hits a Snag

     The Trimble County Board of Education met last Wednesday evening at the Trimble County High School for its regularly scheduled meeting. TCHS Principal Rachel Adams introduced students to the board to be recognized for participating in the Governor’s Scholar Program during the summer. The Governor’s Scholar Participants were Conner Ball, McKenna Ginn, Olivia Cooley, and Christian Apel. The students present told board members a little bit about the program that afforded them the opportunity to live on a college campus for five weeks over the summer break. Each of them was eager to express what a valuable learning experience it was for them.

     Trimble County High School Science Teacher, Angela Pacheco gave the board a presentation about an instruction strategy she has been using to help pupils learn better in her classes. Miss Pacheco introduced her plan as a revolutionary teaching tool and remarked, “This is the best tool I’ve seen in my eighteen years of teaching.”

     Miss Pacheco went on to explain the plan for instruction includes a “daily learning target inventory checklist” for all students. She added that with the checklist each student is able to communicate with her by responding to different questions on the daily checklist.  The students turn in the checklist to Miss Pacheco, then she goes through them thoroughly and provides feedback to the pupils. She said that this gives every student in the class a chance to ask questions he or she might not ask during class and helps him or her better understand the material he or she is learning.

     The big item on the agenda for board members was to discuss the bids they received for Phase 2 of the Athletics Project. Robert Haferman and Steve Eggers from K. Norman Berry Associates Architects, PLLC presented the board with bids for the project to update the football field and track at the high school as Phase 2 of the Athletics project. They reported that they received four bids, but one withdrew early leaving the board with only three bids to review.  The bidders for the project were MAC Construction, EH Construction, Louisville Paving, and Prodigy Construction. Prodigy Construction withdrew their bid. Unfortunately, all of the bids, except for Prodigy Construction, were an astonishing million dollars higher than expected.

     Mr. Haferman explained to the board several possible reasons why the bids came in so high. One reason was he felt that the bidders misunderstood the Base Bid requirements and included the latex track surface into their base bid. The alternative bid would be to have an asphalt track without the latex surface. Haferman added that the cost of sod that has seen an increase in cost of two and one-half times since the plans for the project was completed back in the spring. Another notable increase is the cost of concrete that is up nearly three times what it cost earlier.

     Mr. Eggers and Mr. Haferman offered some ideas to the board about revising the plans. They mentioned removing the public restrooms from the facility, shrinking the size of the plaza and parking lot, adjust the entry gates, as well as revising the drainage system on the field by pulling out the sub-drains on the field. Superintendant Marcia Dunaway and board members were quick to respond that public restrooms were a necessity. Dunaway offered the idea about combining the restrooms and the press box to save on expenses.

     The board voted unanimously to reject all bids. They also agreed to allow Haferman the chance to revise the plans and advertise for more bids once the revisions were made to the project. Haferman said these changes would only put the project about three weeks behind and will have revisions prepared to go out for bidding as soon as possible. Board member Don Scott said, “I look forward to see what alternatives you offer.”

The next board meeting will be Wednesday September 18 at 5:30PM at the Trimble County Board of Education administration office on Wentworth Avenue in Bedford.