After a long week of meetings and presentations, the Riverside-Brookfield High School District 208 school board made its first big decision Monday night about the $63 million dollar renovation and expansion plan at Riverside-Brookfield High School.
At a special board meeting the board voted 6-0 to authorize Superintendent/Principal Jack Baldermann to begin negotiations with Chicago-based James McHugh Construction Co. to act as the project’s construction manager.
The board was faced with a difficult choice between McHugh and Addison-based Frederick Quinn Corporation after those firms, along with Providence, R.I.-based Gilbane Building Company, made presentations to the board last week seeking the job.
Another firm, Henry Brothers was also invited to make a presentation to the board, but chose not to after initially expressing interest in the position.
By selecting McHugh the board went with a large, well-respected firm that is most well known for its concrete work on large commercial projects, but a firm that has less experience in working on school buildings.
However McHugh served as the construction manger for the recent $85 million expansion of York High School in Elmhurst. At York, McHugh worked with Pat Sumrow, whom the board recently hired to serve as the district’s representative on the project.
Wight & Company, the architectural firm for District 208, also was the architect for the York High School project.
McHugh has also supervised a renovation of Lake Forest High School and recently built a new public high school in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago.
Large commercial projects that McHugh has overseen include the rebuilding of a tollway oasis, ongoing work on Terminal 3 at O’Hare Airport, the Nike Town store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Arlington Park race track and Marina City, according to the firm’s Web site.
Board members said they were impressed with Quinn’s presentation last week, but some wondered whether Quinn, a much smaller firm than McHugh, lacked the depth of resources for the job, especially considering the many other school projects Quinn is working on.
“In the final analysis either one would have been fine,” said District 208 school board President Larry Herbst. “We went with the big dog.”
Board member Bill McCloskey, who chairs the board’s Buildings and Grounds Committee, also was impressed by McHugh’s resources.
“I just think that McHugh’s professionalism and size is an advantage,” said McCloskey.
Although board member Laura Hruska voted with the rest of the board to authorize the district to begin negotiations with McHugh, she said that she personally favored Quinn.
“For the record, Quinn was my favorite, but I wouldn’t be opposed to McHugh,” Hruska said before the vote. “What I did like about Quinn is that they only do schools.”
Left in the dust was Gilbane, a large firm that does 41 percent of its work on schools and did work at RB High School last summer.
Gilbane also provided free advice to the district in the run up this spring’s referendum that approved issuing the bonds to raise the money for the project. According to state records Gilbane also contributed $2,000 to Citizens for RB, the advocacy group formed to seek passage of the referendum.
However, the board felt that Gilbane’s presentation was not up to the level of McHugh or Quinn.
Herbst said that the district hoped to have a contract ready for board approval some time in June. Monday’s vote was preliminary. If the district and McHugh cannot reach agreement board members said they would feel comfortable turning to Quinn.
The board acted after receiving input last week from its ad hoc Citizen’s Advisory Committee. Early last week, the board met with the Citizens Advisory Committee to prepare for the interviews with the three firms.