Renovation of an educational facility in Sugar Land, Texas. Completed plans call for the renovation of a educational facility.

https://abc13.com/fort-bend-isd-bond-audit-millions-over-budget-meeting-parents-students/14470931/ Feb 27, 2024 SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) -- Some Fort Bend ISD parents want accountability after the district's recently passed bond went millions over budget, and they say it starts at Monday night's board meeting. Briargate Elementary in Missouri City is set to open next year, but the project faces issues beyond cracks in the soil. "They owe us some answers," Fort Bend ISD parent Adeel Akhtar said. "I think they should help us get past some of this and get over the anxiety that we have." Akhtar wasn't happy when he learned that Briargate Elementary School was millions over budget after work just started. The school is part of the 2023 bond project. Right now, the first projects are 11% over budget. If it continues, the 2023 $1.2 billion bond is on track to be $130 million over budget. The bond's taxpayer money is going toward new schools, technology, and a bus facility. With early projects needing more money, parents are worried about future work. "Is it going to affect that pool," Akhtar asked. "Is it going to affect Clemens High School Is it going to affect the two schools that they're working on right now" Last month, a district spokesperson told ABC13 that the projects are undergoing review, and the goal is to deliver them all as promised. We've learned the bond could also undergo an audit. The school board will vote on this Monday night. Board president Judy Dae sent ABC13 a statement: "Less than a year after voters approved the 2023 bond program, the board was informed that the cost estimates the prior administration provided to the board and the public were inaccurate. At our last board meeting, the board was told that a former staff member failed to share the information our outside consultant provided for a prolonged period. The former employee has since denied the allegations. We, as trustees, need to understand how this could have happened. We need to review the process and determine how to improve the current one to prevent this from happening again. We owe it to the taxpayers and our community to get to the bottom of this unfortunate situation. I will urge my fellow trustees to support the action item of the board conducting an audit on the agenda at tonight's board meeting." "Until we do, the question on my mind, and I think on a lot of people's minds, is how How does this happen We have all these consultants and all these professionals who get paid lots and lots of money to make sure we get these things right," Akhtar explained. Money that continues to flow at school sites, but why more of it was needed could soon come to light if an audit is approved. _________________________________________ https://www.fortbendstar.com/schoolnews/fort-bend-isd-board-grapples-with-136-2-million-overrun-on-bond-program/article_12300b20-ca14-11ee-b20d-b72023e1bbd9.html Feb 13, 2024 At its next regularly scheduled meeting on February 26, the Fort Bend ISD board of trustees is expected again to take up a matter that has been brewing over the previous month or so - a projected $136.2 million cost overrun on projects in the $1.26 billion bond program, the largest in the district's history, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in May 2023. The overruns were the subject of the sole information item at a specially called meeting on February 5 after trustee Rick Garcia, a member of the board's audit committee, brought it up at during at the previous regular meeting on January 22, the first for new Superintendent Marc Smith. In a lengthy presentation, senior members of the district administration said the unanticipated overruns stemmed from two major issues. First, according to Deputy Superintendent Steven Basset, new estimates of the bond program's projected costs, based on such factors as total square footages of campuses, that an outside consulting firm, PBK, that had been sent to a former senior employee of the district in November 2022, when the district was planning for the bond, had not been shared with the district's executive team. That former employee left the district in October 2023, months after the bond package was passed, for a position in the private sector. In later questioning by board members, Damien Viltz, the district's chief operations officer, said the district had not reached out to the former employee to get that person's input on what happened. The second major issue driving the projected overruns, according to Dan Bankhead, the district's relatively new executive director of design and construction, was the "hyperinflation" in the construction sphere that the district, and the greater Houston region, has been experiencing of late. Factors contributing to that inflation, Bankhead said, including such geopolitical factors as the Russia-Ukraine war, which has led to an increase in the cost of aluminum, the fact that the district is competing with neighboring school districts and even the Texas Medical Center for contractors to bid for construction projects, and the like. Bankhead said his team had already begun working to find ways to reduce the projected costs on the biggest-ticket items of the bond program, resulting in a projected reduction thus far of $18 million. Basset said the district's administrative team is looking at a host of avenues to reduce the projected cost overruns to bring the bond project's budgets closer to the original projections. _________________________________________ https://abc13.com/fort-bend-isd-2023-bond-millions-of-dollars-over-budget/14376146/ Feb 02, 2024 MISSOURI CITY, Texas (KTRK) -- Projects in the 2023 bond program for Fort Bend ISD broke ground only months ago, and the district is already millions over budget. The district's bond program isn't winning over some taxpayers. "Keep an eye on the money," Missouri City resident Yvonne Smith said. "Us as taxpayers, we're already giving a lot of money. But, you're going to ask for more, but you told us this is what it would be, and now you're saying, 'I need more,'" Missouri City resident Vashon Reynolds said. A new Briargate Elementary School is one of the first projects from the 2023 bond. Last week, school board members were asked to spend an additional $14 million on the project in order for it to open on time next fall. The board approved the spending and said they were told more requests could be coming. "Let's put this on record. Are there any projects that you can foresee that may be over budget that we haven't discussed or haven't come before us yet" school board member Sonya Jones asked. "The answer is, 'Yes, there are some we're concerned about,'" one school leader answered. Briargate Elementary is 11% over budget. Voters approved a $1.2 billion bond. If the rest of the projects are the same as Briargate Elementary, taxpayers could be on the hook for an additional $130 million. "We do think there are ways to bring the numbers down," Fort Bend ISD deputy superintendent Steven Bassett said. "Whether or not it's going to be enough, we just don't know right now." ABC13 attempted to speak with school board members on Wednesday. They pointed Eyewitness News to board president Judy Dae. She didn't respond to ABC13. A district spokesperson sent ABC13 the following statement: FBISD is experiencing similar construction inflation issues as other school districts across Texas. Currently, 2023 Bond projects are undergoing comprehensive value engineering, scope-to-budget re-alignment, and re-forecasting to ensure our projects are built to the highest standards at the most economical cost. Our goal is to deliver these projects as promised to our community. "I'm afraid that once we get through all the bond projects, the backend of it, we're going to be needing more money, and we're going to be asking taxpayers for more money," Jones said. "I wouldn't be happy, but is it for our kids Is it for our community Yes," Reynold said. New school parents can't wait to see, but the cost to get them may be more than what they approved only months ago. _________________________________________ https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/education/article281305648.html Nov 02, 2023 The Fort Worth Independent School District's newest elementary school was set to open this fall in the Benbrook community, but obstacles with water infrastructure have delayed the welcoming of its inaugural class of 420 students. It's unclear when Rolling Hills Elementary will begin serving pre-kindergartners to fifth-graders, providing relief of overcrowding at nearby Westpark Elementary, but the move could happen in the midst of the 2023-24 school year, according to Mike Naughton, the district's executive director of facilities planning. "We will try to make sure that we move students and staff with as little disruption to instruction as possible. So this could happen over the weekend, it could happen over a long holiday. We have movers ready whenever it's time to pull the trigger," Naughton said. Completing the water infrastructure is between the developer and the city, making it outside of the school district's control, but it's expected to be wrapped up "any day now," Naughton said. The $43 million school was funded through a $1.2 billion bond proposal that was approved by voters in November 2021 for middle school renovations and three other new elementary schools. Eastern Hills Elementary, Maudrie M. Walton Elementary and Worth Heights Elementary will be replaced once the new facilities are built. The rollout of Rolling Hills Elementary comes shortly after the Fort Worth ISD school board approved a study on school building capacity that will include "rightsizing" recommendations, resulting from a steadily declining enrollment of students district-wide. In the Benbrook community, though, Westpark Elementary has dealt with overcrowding for years as residential growth has continued in the area. "We'll be looking at answering the question of, 'Is what we have there sufficient to accommodate the anticipated future growth' as well as, 'Are there other areas of town where we have more school capacity than we need'" Naughton said, referring to the capacity study. Rolling Hills has a maximum capacity of 1,000 students, he added. The district touts the school -- almost 120,000 square feet with 45 classrooms -- as its first "with an indoor slide that travels from the top story to an open library and media center" with other amenities such as an "outdoor art and science courtyard" and "an interactive outdoor learning terrace." The design of the school is based on the children's book "The Giving Tree" with "public spaces that function as roots feeding into classrooms." Pre-K students zoned for Rolling Hills Elementary and Westpark Elementary are currently going to class at nearby Benbrook Elementary until Rolling Hills opens, Naughton said. Julie Shelley-Myslim, a parent of a Benbrook Elementary kindergartner, said although her child will remain at Benbrook once Rolling Hills opens, she's concerned as a community member about shuffling the pre-K students to different locations in the middle of the school year because "at that age, kids rely on routine and knowing what is going to happen next," she told the Star-Telegram. "I'd hate for them to have insecure feelings towards school because their first year involved such a major change," she said. "I cannot see any way that it would be productive to move them halfway through the year. It has been a great disappointment to me that this school has had these delays and under no circumstances should they have considered an opening date for this school year if they were not able to do so the first day of school." Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/education/article281305648.html#storylink=cpy __________________________________________ Construction Management Services (CM-at-Risk) (Two Step Process) FBISD Bond 2023 Program - Mission Bend Elementary Rebuild Question Deadline 05/05/2023 at 10:00 AM CT Any questions/clarifications that result from the meeting should be submitted through the Opportunity Q&A section in Bonfire Intent to Bid by May 16, 2023 2:00 PM CDT.