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District reports construction progress, one red and one yellow project; fleet aging raises replacement planning
Summary
Beaufort County School District construction staff reported mostly green status for 2019 and 2023 bond projects but flagged a red status at Robert Small Leadership Academy and a yellow for Will Branch Early College High School related to contractor documentation; operations staff showed vehicle fleet aging and an asset-management rollout to prioritize replacements.
BEAUFORT, S.C. — At the July 23 joint operations and finance meeting, district construction staff gave monthly updates on bond-referendum projects and district operations.
Construction leadership reported one red traffic light for the 2019 bond at Robert Small Leadership Academy because of remaining site-subcontractor work (decommissioning of a force main and water/sewer meter installations); the contractor JD Dunn missed its substantial-completion date and the district issued a notice of potential liquidated damages at $750 per calendar day, a cost the director said is currently running "a little more than $68,000 and counting." The district also reported a yellow light at Will Branch Early College High School tied to incomplete pay-application documentation from the prime contractor (Charles Perry Partners Inc.), and staff said they intend to issue a notice to cure.
Most other projects from the 2019 program were listed as active with green status and project managers are targeting closure by year-end, with 30 closeouts remaining. The construction director said contingency activity in June included modest returns to savings and use of contingency; the project-level contingency breakdown will be added to next month’s report for clarity.
On the 2023 referendum, staff said project work was generally tracking on schedule with green traffic lights: examples included plan-review progress at May River Elementary, a CTE/JROTC addition at May River High School, and phased work at Hilton Head Island High School. Staff reported a program-level contingency of $11,500,000 for the 2023 referendum and outlined remaining available funds for those projects.
Operations staff presented a fleet snapshot: the district lists about 177 vehicles across buses, vans and trucks with many vehicles purchased around 2017 and an average vehicle age in the 10–15 year range. The district has begun using an asset-management tool to centralize mileage, maintenance and service records to generate life-cycle ratings and prioritize replacements. Staff said two of four ordered activity buses have been delivered so far.
Board members asked whether state seat-belt rules apply to activity buses and requested more detailed contingency rollups at the project level. Construction staff agreed to include a more detailed contingency breakdown in the next monthly materials and to continue outreach to local vendors, including a WMBE and local-vendor workshop scheduled the following evening at the District Educational Services Center.
The committee set the next operations meeting for Aug. 13 at 5 p.m.
