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During Monday night’s meeting, the Brownwood ISD Board Trustees unanimously approved Waldrop Construction as the Construction Manager At Risk (CMAR) for the Student Activities Center to be built on the Brownwood High School campus.

The new indoor facility complex and renovation of the existing Snodgrass indoor facility was passed as part of Proposition C during the May bond election at a cost of $16,000,000, along with tennis, baseball and softball improvements. The current plan is for the Student Activities Center to feature 100 yards of turf indoors that will be used by band, baseball, softball, football, soccer, PE, and others, as well as a training room, dressing rooms, storage, and offices.

On Aug. 24, the BISD Board approved a contract with Tienert Construction Company of Abilene to serve as the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) for the Gordon Wood Stadium Project in conjunction with the 2023 Bond Program.

“Just as we did with the stadium project a couple of months ago, as we move forward with all the bond programs, the next one that’s a big one that we put out for Construction Manager At Risk qualifications was the activities center, the indoor facility, ” said BISD Superintendent Dr. Joe Young. “We received three bids back for that, three qualifications packets. The committee looked through those, scored those, we checked references and Waldrop Construction came out on top and was the recommendation of the committee and was approved by the board. We’re excited about that, it’s a big step and the construction concept has already been approved, the design paper is being built and now we bring the construction manager on to be sure our price of what we’re going to put into that facility fits into the budget that was approved, and things will really start to pick up speed on that.”

At last month’s BISD Board meeting, a timetable for construction on the Student Activities Center was estimated to start in February 2024 and conclude in February 2025.

Tammy Gray, BISD Bond Program Manager, further elaborated on the decision making process during the meeting.

“On Sept. 12 we put out the RFQ for Construction Manager At Risk for the indoor facility complex,” Gray said. “Responses were due back on Sept. 28. We had three companies submit a proposal – Collier Construction, Tienert Construction and Waldrop Construction. The selection committee met Oct. 2 and scored the first two sections of the rubric based on the proposal documents. Between Oct. 5 and Oct. 12 calls were made to four previous clients of each company for past performance scoring. We met again on Oct. 13 to further discuss the proposals and those past performance ratings that were gained. Based on those rubrics, Waldrop Construction was found to be the most qualified to perform the work for the indoor facility complex. Based on the provided information, it is the recommendation of the selection committee that we negotiate a contract with Waldrop Construction.”

Also during Monday’s meeting, Trustee Amary Doremus gave a report on her trip to the TASB Convention and Delegate Assembly, while John Smiley was announced as the replacement for Jerry O’Neal as head of the BISD Maintenance Department, effective Jan. 2, 2024.

Passed on the consent agenda were:

• • SHAC Appointments for 2023-24
  • Adoption of a Prevailing Wage Rate Schedule in connection with all 2023 Bond Program Construction Projects and/or other construction projects authorized by the Board in the 2023-24 to 2024-25 school year.
  • Sept. 11, 2023 Board Meeting Minutes.