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Council Bluffs CSD holds public hearing on guaranteed-maximum-price RFQ for STEM Innovation High School
Summary
The Council Bluffs Community School District held a public hearing on an RFQ for a guaranteed-maximum-price contract to build a roughly 63,000-square-foot STEM Innovation High School; staff outlined a two-step selection process and an aggressive September schedule.
The Council Bluffs Community School District held a public hearing on an RFQ (request for qualifications) for a guaranteed-maximum-price (GMP) contract to build a new STEM Innovation High School, a project the district says will total about 63,000 square feet. Board President John Tripp opened the hearing and district staff outlined the selection process and schedule.
District construction staff said the GMP approach — using a construction manager at risk (CMAR) — became available to the district on July 1, 2022, and is intended to help control cost, improve schedule certainty and preserve quality. "This early partnership will allow us to drive down cost and also give us a really good schedule," said John Stile, who presented the public hearing materials.
Stile said the district posted the CMAR solicitation on Aug. 11, 2025, and received nine RFQ responses. The district intends to follow a two-step, best-value selection process and to shortlist candidates for interviews: "We're going to shortlist the 9 that have applied and condense that down to 4 interviews," Stile said. Under the two-step approach, shortlisted firms will be invited to submit proposals and negotiated GMPs.
The presentation laid out an aggressive timeline: a request for proposals on Sept. 2, RFP responses due (date not specified in the presentation), contract negotiations and a recommendation to the board on Sept. 23. Stile said the district will select not fewer than two and not more than five firms to evaluate in the second phase.
Board members asked whether other Iowa school districts have used the CMAR/GMP route. Stile said he had not personally contacted other districts but that staff member Daryl Meyer had reached out to several districts that used the method. There were no members of the public who spoke during the hearing, and the board closed the public comment portion of the hearing with no testimony.
No formal action was taken during the hearing; staff described the solicitation and next steps and will return with contract recommendations if and when negotiations conclude.
The district said the GMP approach shifts the risk for cost overruns to the CMAR up to the guaranteed amount, while allowing staff and board more schedule and cost certainty during construction. Specific contract terms, the final GMP and funding sources were not specified during the presentation.
A subsequent board workshop meeting continued other business.
