School board discusses proper handling of federal funds

HAMLET — The Richmond County Board of Education is preparing to gather interest and interview applicants for three constructions projects in Richmond County Schools.

The planned projects will be done at Richmond Senior High School, Fairview Heights and Mineral Springs Elementary Schools for a total projected cost around $13,000,000.

The projects are being accomplished through ESSER funds.

“We don’t want to be jammed up two years, three years, four years, five years down the road,” said Chairman Wiley Mabe at the work session Wednesday evening. “You can’t have enough eyes on this. We want to go in, everybody eyes open, and with as much information as we can.”

ESSER funds come from the U.S. Department of Education through the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). Approximately 90% of those funds go to local education agencies. The percentage of money that each county receives is the same as their Title I allotment.

Dr. Pam Patterson, Director of Federal Programs, said they’re in a “whole new world” using federal money on capital projects.

Rod Malone, an attorney at Tharrington Smith in Raleigh, said that many school systems in North Carolina have hired architects on projects in compliance with state procurement requirements, but did not satisfy the federal requirements. This has caused those to school systems to completely restart the entire process.

Both Malone and Superintendent Dr. Jeff Maples said the work session was an opportunity to “dot i’s and cross t’s” to make sure they’re prepared to move forward with these projects following proper procedure.

One requirement that school systems were not in compliance with was soliciting RFQ’s (request for quote) from minority and women-owned firms. This is required under a North Carolina statue, and Richmond County is already in compliance with this policy, Malone said.

Another failure from some school systems was including the relative weight that is going to be applied to the criteria for architect selection in their RFQ.

Patterson said the criteria for their RFQ is 40% based on past experience in K-12 projects and 20% based on staffing and proposed design team, which is the standard weight given to each.

Malone recommended that Maples post the announcement of the projects on the NC Department of Administration Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB) to screen for potential applicants.

“This will certainly ensure compliance with that requirement,” Malone said.

These projects will be posted this Thursday to field interest from architectural firms. Maples said that he, along with Patterson, will select the top three or four firms and set up interviews between representatives from those firms and the Board. One firm could potentially do all three projects, or three individual firms could each take on a project.

Maples said it will be a long afternoon interviewing interested firms and they will give each firm adequate time for an interview.

“It will be time that’s well-invested to make a very important decision, not a hasty one,” Maples said.

The Board tentatively scheduled those interviews from interested firms for Sept. 22-24. Once a firm is selected, only then can a fee for the project be negotiated.

A tentative goal was set for contract approval on Oct. 5.