Harris County Board reviews summer facilities projects, new safety systems and routing software; votes set for April 17

Harris County — The Harris County Board of Education received a detailed facilities and technology briefing on April 10 that laid out a package of summer projects and proposed safety and transportation contracts the board plans to vote on at its regular meeting on April 17.

Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and Technology Scott Fisher told the board the district has selected contractors for two summer interior-painting projects at Creekside Intermediate and Park Elementary and recommended a single vendor for a districtwide retention-pond and septic-services contract. Fisher also described a construction management-at-risk arrangement for unplanned repairs, plans to replace auditorium seats and repair damaged concrete, and a migration of the district’s routing and parent-app systems onto a single platform from Transact (referred to in the meeting as “Easy Routing”).

Fisher said the Creekside painting proposal was priced at just under $89,000 and Park at about $73,200. He recommended Dolan (as recorded in the meeting) for retention-pond and septic services and described that contract as covering roughly 13 retention ponds and biannual pump/service schedules for several septic systems. The ServiceMaster construction management-at-risk option was presented as an on-demand, pay-as-needed arrangement to address urgent repairs without delaying school operations.

On transportation, Fisher said moving routing, parent notifications and driver tablets to a single vendor would avoid duplicative work on BusRite and VersaTrans. He estimated annual costs on the new platform at about $91,000 versus roughly $112,000 for the BusRite component alone; VersaTrans migration work would be phased out over a year to preserve historical routing data, he said.

Fisher also presented two safety-technology proposals. A Syntigix emergency-response platform was shown with pricing in the proposal binder that Fisher summarized as approximately $474,000 over five years, payable on an installment schedule. He said the district had expected state funding for the system but was informed the state would not fund it; the district is moving forward with a local procurement to implement the platform for August startup.

The board also reviewed an Evolve weapons-detection leasing proposal laid out as a four-year agreement. Fisher said the first-year cost, which includes installation and training, would be roughly $217,000, with subsequent years at about $170,000 annually; the proposal calls for dual-lane units at the larger campuses and single lanes at other schools and allows temporary relocations for stadium or event use.

Fisher recommended applying for TIPS, a national purchasing cooperative, to streamline large procurements. He told the board there is no cost to become a TIPS member and that the cooperative provides pre-vetted vendor pricing for larger projects.

Board members asked about contract scope, costs and scheduling; Fisher said most work would occur over June and July. Several items discussed in Fisher’s presentation were placed on the agenda for formal consideration at the board’s April 17 regular meeting.

The board did not take formal action at the committee meeting; the following agenda items were set for vote on April 17: the district retention ponds and septic services contract (Agenda H3), interior painting contracts for Creekside and Park (H4), the Syntigix safety platform contract (H5), the Evolve weapons-detection purchase/lease (H6/H5 as listed in the packet), TIPS cooperative membership (H7), the ServiceMaster construction management-at-risk contract (H8) and the Easy Routing transportation software contract (H9).