Park Ridge CCSD 64 approves construction contracts for Field and Washington projects

The Park Ridge CCSD 64 Board of Education approved contracts for interior construction work at Field and Washington schools on Feb. 20, awarding the packages after district staff reviewed bids and budget impacts.

Board action: At the meeting the board voted to award contracts for Field (interior-only at this time) and Washington not to exceed $11,698,715 for the packages included in the agenda. The motion passed by roll call (yes: Milligan; yes: Earl; yes: Tujos; yes: Lubinski; yes: Kennedy; yes: Doubleday; yes: Rodriguez). The motion text on the record was to “approve the awarding of the contracts to the lowest responsible and responsive bidders for the construction projects at Field, Washington not to exceed $11,698,715.” (Mover/second not specified in the transcript.)

Why it mattered: The vote advances a set of referendum-funded projects the district described as central to the referendum’s goals of improved safety, accessibility and learning environments. District staff reported favorable bid results that, combined with non-referendum capital funds and value-engineering decisions, showed a projected budget surplus as of the current bid packages.

District presentation and bidding: District staff said the total budget for the Field and Washington packages across all revenue sources was about $19.7 million; referendum allocations were listed as roughly $10.86 million for Field and $7.2 million for Washington, supplemented by smaller capital-fund contributions. Staff described a strategy of breaking the work into multiple bid packages to capture economies of scale and to enable alternates if the district needed to pare scope.

Bids reported in the presentation included Field interior packages at about $10.6 million and Washington interior packages at about $5.8 million; combined with capital funds and contingencies staff reported a projected surplus of roughly $2.0 million at the program level, subject to market conditions and future bid packages. District staff cautioned that future packages remain subject to global market forces (tariffs, material availability) and noted bid prices lock for a limited period.

Field exterior and parking: The board also reviewed the Field exterior/parking plan separately. Because of permitting and water-reclamation requirements, the district split the Field outside work from the interior vote and will return with the exterior packages after zoning approvals. Staff presented a phased approach to add staff parking around Field that would increase on-site/adjacent parking from 45 to 84 spaces with an estimated cost of about $260,000 to be paid from this year’s surplus budget if approved by the city. Staff said the Field exterior work will require zoning-board-of-appeals and city approvals in March (ZBA, planning and zoning, city council hearings were listed on the project schedule). Staff said separating the exterior package reduced the risk to interior work schedules if approvals were delayed.

Next steps: With the board’s authorization staff said they will finalize contracts with the low bidders and proceed with procurement and early ordering of materials. The district will return to the board with additional bid packages (Emerson, Lincoln and other projects) and with the Field exterior package once municipal approvals are resolved.

Ending: Staff and the district’s construction manager said they will continue biweekly project coordination and provide monthly updates to the board; the board moved the interior packages forward while holding the Field exterior for the next approval step pending city variances and water-reclamation review.