School board members 'frustrated' with Will Rogers construction
Dec. 19—Construction delays and issues on a McAlester school left school board members "beyond frustrated" as they hope for a resolution after the holiday break.
McAlester Public Schools Board of Education members received an update on a renovation at Will Rogers Elementary — which officials said has taken beyond a year past the original completion date the district agreed upon with the contractor.
"I think we're all as frustrated as everybody else," MPS Board President Joy Tribbey said at a recent board meeting. "Beyond frustrated."
Cafeteria staff cooked meals at other campuses and delivered them to Will Rogers Elementary students for longer than a year, in addition to disruptions during the school day every day.
The News-Capital obtained a copy of the contract through an Open Records Request that was signed Dec. 14, 2020 for the $3.7-million classroom addition at Will Rogers Elementary.
The contract with Norman-based TCS Construction and Architects in Partnership, LLC states substantial completion should be reached "not later than two hundred ninety (290) calendar days from the date of commencement of the work."
The date of commencement and substantial completion is listed as "a date set forth in a notice to proceed issued by the owner" — which school officials said was more than a year ago.
Contractors told board members in August they would be done and key would be turned over in September, which was still beyond the original deadline, but that also didn't happen.
Officials said they started talking about terminating the contract before seeing some results in moving forward.
Maintenance Director KC Buck told board members that district officials met with the contractor earlier this month and he thought it went well.
"We're supposed to be seeing a lot of feet on the ground," Buck said.
He said the contractor needed to complete some plumbing work and that the plumber was waiting on some payment.
District officials said they paid immediately upon receipt of any payment application, but some subcontractors weren't getting paid and didn't return to work.
Buck said a manhole to be installed in front of the building was not in the original contract, so he sent MPS crews to pick it up and install it with local plumbers over the weekend.
"We've all set a goal, including TCS, to have everything signed off and inspected by Wednesday (Dec. 21)," Buck said. "If that doesn't go, we're going to take steps to do the work outside the contract."
"Let's say the plumber doesn't show up, what does accountability look like for that?" Board member Greg Rock said. "I mean I think it's probably goes without saying that this is ridiculous. So what does that look like or do we just have to deal with it?"
Buck said it didn't appear that anything could be done to hold the plumber accountable for not completing work.
However, district officials said plumbers agreed to install the manhole and were supposed to be on site this week.
Officials said the contractor resolved those issues and agreed to hire new subcontractors if needed to complete the project before the end of the holiday break.
"That's the plan," MPS Assistant Superintendent Paula Meadows said. "We're hopeful that the cafeteria and the kitchen area will be ready to use. Now the classrooms, we won't be moving anybody into that until next school year."
