ABC Unified approves employee‑wellness contract and several vendor awards, including grant-funded plumbing replacements

The ABC Unified School District board approved several vendor contracts Tuesday, including a contract to study employee well-being and retention, a state grant-funded plumbing retrofit at multiple schools and a Measure BB moving-services procurement.

District staff described the employee-wellness project as an effort to "gather and better understand from a new generation of teachers what they like about working here, what kind of supports work well for them" and to inform retention strategies as the district faces uncertain budget years. The board approved the contract to provide data collection, professional learning and site-level analysis for 2024–25.

The board also approved a state-funded contract to replace toilets, faucets and similar fixtures at qualifying low-income schools (the list in the staff report includes Palms, Burbank, Hawaiian, Ferguson, Aloha, Melbour, Willow, Elliot and NE). Staff said the project will replace 767 fixtures and requires pre- and post-installation water-efficiency testing to meet grant conditions; the award is fully funded by the grant.

Under Measure BB the district solicited bids for moving services; staff recommended Bellman as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder and also approved King Office Services and Armstrong as second and third options in the event of capacity needs on large projects. Trustees approved that recommendation.

Board discussion emphasized the purpose of the employee-survey contract as a retention and climate tool and noted that the plumbing project is a grant-funded efficiency upgrade with no general-fund impact. The motions to award the contracts were approved by the board.

Implementation steps include vendor contracting and scheduled site work for the plumbing replacements, and vendor onboarding and project timelines for the employee-survey work; staff will return to the board with implementation updates as required.