Columbia County board: RFQ for architects set for Columbia High School rebuild; graduation rate uptick noted

District staff will issue a request for qualifications for architectural services for the Columbia High School rebuild, a board member said at the Columbia County School Board meeting.

"We're putting an RFQ... out tomorrow. It'll run for three weeks," said board member Mister Woodgren, who outlined a timeline that calls for interviews in the first and second weeks of February and the goal of bringing an architect to the board for approval at the last meeting in February. Woodgren attributed the announcement to district staff work and said the RFQ is the next step to begin phase 1 documents for the project.

Woodgren also noted that district staff distributed state graduation rates during the meeting. "Rachel passed out the... grad rates that the state just released today, so it's hot off the press. I don't think we've had time to really digest it all, but we did go up 2 points," he said. He said staff plan a deeper review and a presentation at a future meeting.

The RFQ timetable described by Woodgren calls for a three-week advertisement period, interviews in early and mid-February, and a recommendation to the board for consideration in late February. The board did not vote on the RFQ or authorization at the meeting; the comments were presented as staff planning and next steps.

Next procedural steps are the advertisement of the RFQ by district staff, candidate interviews, and a future board action to approve a selected architect if the timeline proceeds as described.

The board also announced its next regular meeting for the 27th at 9:00 under the new schedule.