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.
