ES cafeteria bids are too high, Pruitt says

Bids for the construction of a new cafeteria for elementary and middle school students in Eureka Springs came in much higher than Superintendent Bryan Pruitt anticipated.

Pruitt gave the school board an update on the process at its regular meeting Monday, March 13.

“The bids came back exorbitant,” Pruitt said. “So, I didn’t even take a recommendation to the board. I just said to take two more weeks and see if you can close up some loose ends and figure out how we can get some better bids.”

Pruitt said bids received had the project at approximately $500 a square foot.

“A few years ago construction was $200 a square foot,” he said. “We were anticipating around $300 a square foot and it’s coming back at $500. We’ve got to get some cleanup on that and get some better bids.”

Going into the project the district’s architect thought the building could be built for $3.1 million, Pruitt said.

“I anticipated $4 million and the bid comes in at $5 million,” he said. “I’m not taking that bid to the board. If they could get it to around $4 million that would be more in tune with our budget.

“We’re talking less than a 10,000-square foot building. It’s not like we’re talking about building a big fancy, fivestar restaurant. I do understand inflation and everything but we have to respect our constituents’ money, the taxpayer dollars.”

BOARD ACTIONS

The board approved the district calendar for 2023-24 school year, which has school starting on Aug. 14, 2023, and ending on May 20, 2024, for a total of 178 student days.

The calendar also has five built-in make-up days for inclement weather.

“The secretary of education is kind of frowning upon those AMI days that we need in this part of the state,” Pruitt said. “We used seven this year and nine last year. It looks like they’re going to require districts to use the snow days first that you build in the calendar and then you might get some AMI days after that.

“So, we designed our calendar around that.” The calendar includes Christmas break from Dec. 20 to Jan. 3.

The board also approved a resolution that calls for only early and absentee voting for upcoming school board elections since there are no contested races.

“All voting will be at the Carroll County Courthouse in Berryville for all three districts because we don’t have any contested races,” Pruitt said. “So they won’t have to set any polls up. It will save us a significant amount of money because we pay for all of that.”

The board also approved the resignations of employees Amanda Croxton (effective March 2), Danny Cameron, George Hartline, Debbie Lester and high school art teacher Jessica Cummings, all effective June 30.