White County board orders RFP for facilities audit after debate over CMTA

The White County Board of Education voted Feb. 12 to begin a formal request-for-proposals process for a comprehensive facilities audit to identify capital and efficiency projects across district buildings.

The vote followed an extended discussion about a recommendation from maintenance director Mister Alley to contract with CMTA, an engineering/energy-audit firm that previously presented to the board. Board members and staff debated procurement protocol and whether the district should solicit multiple firms rather than select CMTA directly. Finance staff described the RFP as a standard professional‑services solicitation that asks firms to describe the services they would provide; pricing generally comes later in contract negotiations.

“We're just asking if you're interested in doing the audit — tell us what your company would provide,” Alley said during the meeting. District finance staff explained that many auditing firms perform an initial audit at no charge in hopes of winning follow‑on implementation work, and that any future projects would come back to the board for authorization.

Board member Mister McDonald moved to begin the RFP process; Mister Smith seconded the motion. After further clarification that issuing an RFP would not obligate the district to hire any firm, the board voted in favor and directed Mr. Markham to publish the RFP and collect responses for board review.

Next steps: district staff will draft and publish the RFP, accept submissions, and return summaries of respondents to the board for evaluation. Any subsequent contract or capital work recommended by an audit would require additional board approval.

(Ending) The board adopted the RFP direction and closed discussion; staff said summaries could be available by the next meeting.