OAK PARK : Cheaper Way to Finish School Sought

The Oak Park School Board has opted to shelve dozens of bids for completion of Red Oak Elementary School, saying it would go back to the drawing board to find a cheaper way to complete the project.

At a special meeting Tuesday night to consider 50 bids on 15 separate contracts, the board awarded only two contracts, one for landscaping and the other for a communication system, said George Zettle, vice president of PCM3, a consulting firm hired to manage the project.

“The bidders will be notified that their bids have been rejected due to budget constraints,” Zettle said. “In the meanwhile, the design team will develop some cost-saving ideas.”

Opening of the new, $4.5-million Red Oak school was postponed two weeks at the beginning of the school year due to construction delays, and parents have expressed concern that the final phase--a $2.7-million project to add seven classrooms--also would not be completed on time.

Zettle said the time frame for completing the bidding process is “still being determined” but that “the contracts will be awarded so that the school district has its classrooms by next fall.”

The two contracts awarded by the school board were for $15,000 to New West Landscaping of Camarillo and $29,500 to Pacificomm of Camarillo to set up a clock, bell and alarm system for the new classrooms and the future administration building.

The school, with an enrollment of about 280 students, has 13 classrooms, three of which are being used for office space, the library and teachers’ lounge, Principal Jeff Hamlin said.

“It’s just a matter of cutting out some of the gingerbread that the architect added,” Hamlin said. “The only thing that will not be up and running (due to the delay) will be the multipurpose room.”

Among the contracts that were not awarded were those for plumbing, electrical work, cabinets, stucco, glass and glazing, and metal roofing.