The Board of Education approved purchase-order increases for a slate-to-composite roof replacement at BI and for a new turf field, and administrators said both projects remain within the district’s transfer-to-capital authority. During discussion administrators gave updated completion-cost estimates and explained change-order reasons; several trustees and members of the public raised questions about bidding, transparency and a requested field layout change tied to a local soccer organization.

On the roof: district staff said the original 2024–25 transfer-to-capital proposed estimate for the BI roof was $900,000; the contractor’s purchase-order price was $760,000 and the current estimated completion cost is $801,000 after a vendor correction. Staff said the $98,000 gap represents savings relative to the earlier $900,000 figure and that the vendor corrected an initial figure after the job moved from an early estimate to time-and-materials near-completion pricing. Staff also said the selected composite roofing product carries a 50-year warranty and is quartz-sand based.

On the turf: staff said the 2025–26 transfer-to-capital proposed estimate for the turf was $2,000,000 and the contractor’s initial price was $2,029,000; two purchase-order increases of $169,000 and $78,000 bring the current estimated completion cost to $2,266,000 (an increase of about $247,000 against the original transfer estimate). Administrators said some of the change orders addressed unforeseen site issues — including ground-and-gutter repairs, a retaining wall and walkway where the field footprint was too close to a hillside, concrete dugouts and a new walkway — and that the turf product is certified free of certain VOCs and PFAs and includes a shock pad.

Several trustees and members of the public said they were discouraged by the procurement process and wanted more documentation about the number of bids received, performance bonds, engineer reports and public notifications. One board member said they had seen only pricing from a single company and asked for the facilities committee to review bids and renderings in a public forum. Another trustee noted that the final purchase-order amounts remained within the overall transfer-to-capital budget and thanked staff for clarifying figures.

Conflict-of-interest questions surfaced after a board member disclosed volunteer involvement with a local soccer club and acknowledged that a requested layout change (7 v 7 lines) came from a club request and would be paid for by district funds. Trustees asked for legal counsel to review whether that change order raised any governance or procurement issues; administrators said field scheduling and use requests are routed to the athletic director and that external groups request time and may pay associated fees to use facilities.

The board approved the roof and turf purchase-order increases by voice vote. No external audits or engineer reports were introduced at the meeting; community speakers requested copies of bids, bonding and vetting documents and asked when contractor payments began and from which accounts. Administrators said the projects had been discussed in spring budget presentations and shown in prior board meeting slides, and said work started on the turf in July with an estimated completion of Sept. 19 for some components and that portions of BI construction would be completed before school opened.

The board asked the facilities committee to review the projects and renderings in public and directed staff to provide additional documentation on bidding and contracts to the board and to the public forum requested by the committee.