Public Private Partnerships Move Forward
January 30, 2008 - Public Private Partnerships moved another step forward in discussions at the Facilities Committee of the Wake County Board of Education yesterday.
Assistant Superintendent Mike Burriss talked with the board committee about three teams of developers who will be recommended to the board at its Feb. 5 meeting to provide proposals for the E-25 elementary school to be built near U.S. 1 at Wake Forest.
“We took a big step today,” said Burriss. “Today we presented to our board the responses we received from the private community responding back to our request for proposals for the development of a public private elementary school in Wake Forest.”
In 2006, state law gave school systems the ability to enter into a lease for privately-developed public schools. Previously, N.C. school systems could lease and renovate facilities, but the 2006 law allows the Board of Education to identify where schools are needed, provide design and construction specifications to the builders, and then lease the facility upon completion.
Burriss told the committee 60 people attended a Dec. 11, 2007 meeting held at East Garner Elementary to discuss the request for proposal for the public private partnership for E-25. From that meeting, six different teams brought proposals addressing 31 requirements to WCPSS.
A team of WCPSS facility staff, Wake County staff and a representative from the Citizens Facility Advisory Committee reviewed the six proposals and recommended the three teams of developers. The evaluating team included Burriss, WCPSS Chief Facilities and Operation Officer Don Haydon, WCPSS Chief Business Officer David Neter, Jyoti Sharma of WCPSS Facilities Design and Construction, Deputy Wake County Manager Joe Durham, Wake County Debt Manager Cheryl Spivey and Glenn Blackley of the Citizens Facilities Advisory Committee.
The three teams of developers include Balfour Beatty Capital, Balfour Beatty Construction, Schenkel Schultz Architecture and Heery International; First Choice Public Private Partners, LLC, an association of English Construction Company with Moseley Architects; and Place Enterprises, LLC, Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, and Clancy and Theys Construction Company.
These three teams are to submit proposals to the school system by March 14 for review and evaluation by staff to make a recommendation to the board in April.
“In March, these three teams will again submit to us a second round,” said Burriss. “They will have more detailed financial information. They will have to give us a dollar amount that they think they will be able to build that building for and then lease to us. By fixing that dollar amount at that time, we can compare to what our costs would be to develop that property. Then we will put that proposal to the board and show them all the particulars.”
-wcpss-