NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Buhler USD 313 Board of Education is holding a special meeting Wednesday afternoon to interview Construction Manager at Risk candidates. That concept has become popular among school districts looking to know how to budget.
"It's been around for a while," Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman said. "It's just lately, it's become a really popular way of doing construction. That is, you hire a construction manager. They sort of guarantee the project to be done at a maximum price. After they get all the drawings and stuff, they give you a set price, guaranteed not to go over it. There's some advantages to using the Construction Manager at Risk right now."
The board will be interviewing three candidate firms.
"That is in closed session," Couchman said. "The interviews cannot happen in public session. You'll see a lot of executive sessions in there, where we go into executive session, interview them, come out, go into another executive session, interview the next company."
Couchman doesn't believe the district can go wrong, whatever the board's choice may be.
"All three of them have a fantastic reputation," Couchman said. "We're looking at similar projects. We're looking at how well we all just sort of get along in the interview, too. You have a very close relationship while all these projects are going on with each other. Also, how soon they can get to work with us. This is a busy time for construction companies. We are kind of on a timeline."
Particularly when it comes to the remodeling of the Masonic Lodge building for the purposes of the Ad Astra Academies, the sooner that work can get done, the better for the overall growth of that program.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.