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Study Review: Extraordinary Audit of the Weed Union Elementary School District
Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT)
Part 1 of 2 • www.fcmat.org
Reports and audits are available to the general public at the FCMAT website. It is worthwhile to review their reports. Recently, an audit was published regarding Weed Union Elementary School District. While there are several areas of concern, this first article will look at two critical school processes that CBOC members should understand within their school districts.
– All Bond Projects approved by taxpayers involve school construction – repair, modernization, or new construction. For construction projects to commence, some decisions must be made, primarily the construction delivery method employed. Traditional construction delivery methods are 1) Design-Built, 2) Design-Bid-Built, and 3) Lease-lease Back. The school districts can use other delivery approaches. Once determined, the Purchasing organizations, under the direction of the Facilities Manager/Bond Manager, creates the requirements document that is used to conduct a request for proposal (RFP)/request for quote (RFQ) to identify and select potential architectural, construction management, and construction suppliers.
– Located in Siskiyou County, Weeds Union Elementary School District, a TK-8 school, serves 323 students in northwestern California, a rural area. The school buildings experienced flooding and water damage in 2019 and needed funds to remediate mold and repair damage. Also, asbestos was found in some of the buildings. The school board approved an emergency single project called the Weed Elementary School Replacement Project to meet the school classroom needs. Afterward, the school district encountered financial stress affecting the construction projects and day-to-day school operations. In February 2023, FCMAT initiated an audit to review the construction project and processes.
– Weeds Elementary used the Construction Management Multiprime (CMMP) delivery method. Using the CMMP delivery method means the district assumes many of the risks of a general contractor, the burden risks of a general contractor, and the burden of processing each contract and billing. This means that instead of subcontractors bidding and being selected by the general contractor, each package of trades is bid by the district and assisted by the construction manager. The problems encountered included stopping construction until supplier pricing and the district revenues changed to continue construction; bid splitting and bypassing the RFP/RFQ process and lastly, resolving the contract language regarding the critical path method (CPM).
– The RFP/RFQ process must adhere to bidding contracts that exceed the government thresholds. Based on Public Contract Code (PCC) 20111(a), school boards must competitively bid and award to the lowest responsible bidder any contract that includes expenditures more than $50,000 adjusted for inflation. The state superintendent of public instruction (SPI) is required to adjust the $50,000 amount specified in PCC 20111(a) annually to reflect the percentage change in the annual average value of the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Purchases of Goods and Services for the United States. In addition, public projects defined in PCC 22002(c), such as construction or reconstruction, have a lower bid threshold of $15,000. – However, some districts can choose to be subject to the California Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act (CUPCCAA), which has a $60,000 threshold. At Weeds Unified Elementary School District, the consistency of following the RFP/RFQ process varied, resulting in some contracts were not competitively bid. – –
For more information, you can read the Weed's FCMAT audit on their website.
https://fcmat.org/PublicationsReports/siskiyou-coe-weed-uesd-ab-139-final-report.pdf
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