The Poplar Bluff R-I School Board approved a proposal from HD Media Systems of Cape Girardeau for extensive upgrades to the Kay Porter Theater lighting and audio/visual systems at their December meeting.
HD Media Systems was the low bidder, at an amount of $233,828.61, which will come out of funds reserved for the theater, which currently stands at approximately $425,000.
Due to high enrollment in fourth-grade classrooms at the middle school, the board approved the addition of a new fourth-grade teaching position to be fully paid for through Title I funds.
A number of maintenance and construction-related issues were discussed and approved at Thursday night’s meeting.
Meinershagen Roofing and Sheet Metal of Farmington, was awarded the bid for roofing projects at Oak Grove and Mark Twain. The Oak Grove project was bid at $67,615, and the Mark Twain project came in at $114,715.
The board spent considerable time discussing the bid qualification that material availability and pricing cannot be guaranteed due to market volatility and raw material shortages.
The board decided to request a breakdown of materials and labor costs with a cap on potential price increases and an exit clause, should any potential cost increase become prohibitive.
Although the board had planned to do fire alarm upgrades and installations to one grade school per year over the next several years, the availability of federal ESSER COVID relief funds has enabled the district to address all four grade schools plus the Mark Twain facility this year.
The bid for all five buildings was awarded to Siemens Industry, Inc. of St. Louis in the amount of $287,017.
Brockmiller Construction of Farmington was selected for the Construction Manager at Risk position, which will oversee renovation plans for the new administration building in downtown Poplar Bluff.
The qualifications were scored by analyzing staff qualifications, past performance on relevant projects, past performance with the designer, past performance with the owner, self-performed work and location of workload, and project approach. In addition, interviews were conducted with the top two highest-scored companies.
In other action, the board approved the district’s property and liability insurance through Missouri United School Insurance Council. A membership credit of 10% was issued for 2022 for $78,989.
The district’s 2022 insurance assessment is $710,902 after the membership credit is applied, which is a 5.3% increase.
Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill informed the board he and his staff are working on the district calendar for 2022-2023, but they are still looking at different options for a fall 2022 starting date for the new school year.
Dill also gave the board conceptual artwork for the PB Booster Club’s acquisition of a new outdoor stadium scoreboard. The cost of the scoreboard is estimated at $238,000.