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Southampton County Public Schools is seeking to build the Student Health & Education Building through a job-ordering contract after the project did not receive any bids.

The building is slated to be built behind Southampton High School next to the tennis courts, and Southampton County School Board Chair Dr. Deborah Goodwyn previously described it as a facility that could be used to encourage and support student health activities, programs and classes.

Joshua C. Bower, a representative from the architectural firm Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, gave the board an update Oct. 14 on the project, noting that it was put out for bid.

“Unfortunately, we did not receive any bids from bidders,” he said. “We had three bidders attend the pre-bid meeting, but no bidders actually issued the bids today for the project.”

He said, “It’s not what we had hoped for. It is not awful news.”

He highlighted two options moving forward.

“One is to put the project back out to bid,” he said. “The challenge with that is that we could spend three weeks of time and face the same result where we have no bidders.”

He noted that the second option is to pursue a job-ordering contract. With this option, the school division would put out a Request for Proposals and enter into a contract with a contractor for an entire year.

“So not only would that give you the ability to do this project but then also any other project as long as the total costs for the individual projects do not exceed $1 million,” he said. “So it really does give you a great opportunity to engage a contractor that can do not only this project but then also other things.”

He said the division could also renew the contract if it enjoys working with the contractor.

“With this process with job-ordering contracts, it’s definitely a great path to be able to issue an RFP and negotiate with a contractor as opposed to doing a formal public bid,” he said. “It’s one of the many great things about Virginia (that) it gives you that flexibility for a project under $1 million. Anything over that, we would not have the ability to do this particular option.”

Bower has been working with the School Board’s ad hoc Facilities Committee to reduce the cost of the Student Health & Education Building, moving it closer to the budget. The committee is composed of School Board Vice Chair Denise Bunn and School Board Member Brandon Rodgers.

In his slideshow presentation, Bower listed the following project cost reductions:

• Reduce building to 4,860 square feet;
• Delete storage room;
• Delete laundry room; 
• Reduce building height and simplify roof to single gable; 
• Reduce HVAC to heating and ventilation only in Multi-Purpose Room; and 
• Change structure to pole frame – metal clad building.

Bunn said that if the project is done as part of a job-ordering contract, it would give SCPS flexibility as it seeks to obtain grants to help fund portions of the building.

“We worked in the committee multiple times to scale down the size of the building,” she said. “We were trying to get it to more of a standard size that we may then have builders that are familiar with metal buildings that would be willing to come in and do the work but don’t necessarily want to go through the state process.

“So this would allow an opportunity for some of the builders who are very good at those buildings and what they do to then come in under an RFP,” she continued. “And then if we were able to secure additional grants to add in some things that we were having to leave out initially, we could then use that same builder to do some of those things under that RFP.”

School Board Member Dr. Jennifer Tindle asked if obtaining a job-ordering contract would in any way impact things like the Davis-Bacon Act or other procedures that the school division has to follow because of the type of money that it is using for this project.

“The good news about JOC is it does not have a limitation on whether it is state or federal work, so it would not affect that,” Bower said, adding that SCPS must simply not go over $1 million per project. “That is our limitation, is the dollar figure, not how the money is acquired.”

Goodwyn confirmed with Bunn and Rodgers that it was the committee’s recommendation that the division do an RFP in the pursuit of a job-ordering contract.