 The new athletic field house slated for Lewisville High School may or may not include a fire sprinkler retro-fit for the main classroom building, but will cost a total of $4.8 million, according to documents obtained from Lewisville ISD today.
On November 12th, WhosPlayin requested backup information for an item that was to be approved at the November 16th meeting of the LISD Trustees.
We had previously reported that LISD would be approving fire sprinklers for Lewisville High School, based on conversations with Lewisville City staff and our interpretation of the cryptic agenda item "Contract to SHW Group for Mechanical Changes and Upgrades at Lewisville High School."
Prior to the board meeting we contacted Cherry Carter, secretary to the Superintendant of LISD to request clarification on the agenda item and whether it included sprinklers or not, but Carter claimed that the information was secret and for board members only. (The Texas Open Meetings Act does not allow secret documents for this type of agenda item).
District spokeswoman Karen Permetti responded to our request for clarification simply with "please submit an open records request".
According to the documents obtained, which do not mention sprinklers specifically, school board members may not have known whether they were voting on sprinklers for the facility. The document mentions a price of $4.5 million for the total construction cost, with an additional $308,250 for construction management fees to SHW group, which will assume the risk if the project goes over budget.
Since the original estimated cost of the project was $4 million, and the district has been saving money on construction costs due to a depressed construction market, we are left to speculate that the additional $500,000 in construction costs go towards sprinkler installation, HVAC replacements, and possible asbestos remediation.
In an email from Permetti on Friday, she stated "I do know that mechanical improvements include, lighting, HVAC, tiles and sprinkler systems.". What was not clear though was whether she was referring to these specific mechanical improvements, or the meaning of "mechanical improvements" in general.
My opinion
OK, time for me to rant: How hard would it have been for LISD staff to have simply answered my question in a truthful and straightforward manner? Either the project includes sprinklers or it does not. As a taxpayer and parent of children who will attend Lewisville High School, I have every right to know what our school board is voting on - as do you.
Instead, they gave me the runaround, basically daring me to submit an open records request.
This is unfortunately modus operandi for LISD, which is why I've taken the liberty of updating the district's logo for use on this website.
Now, I am no lawyer, but I do have to wonder just what the resolution in the attached document will accomplish, since the resolution itself does not mention the company or the amount of the fee charged. Since the resolution was not read aloud at the meeting, and the agenda item was unlawfully vague, I have to question whether the trustees even knew what they were voting on.
I regret having to post speculation here. I'd rather post facts that I obtain by talking to Trustees and Staff, but regrettably LISD has decided that they are not accountable to taxpayers, and don't have to disseminate the information that rightfully belongs to the taxpayers of this district. When a blogger pointed out some problems in the district, rather than fix them immediately and try to improve their processes, the first thing they did was to pass a policy giving staff further excuses to stonewall.
It is time for LISD Trustees to show some back bone and demand more transparency from Dr. Roy and his staff.
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Re: LHS Field House to Cost $4.8 Million - Sprinklers a D...
