By Josh Curran

As the buses pull away from schools on the final day of school this June, a new race begins. For students, summer is a time for family vacations and sleep-away camps. But, for school leaders, maintenance crews and elected school boards, it is the start of an unforgiving 10-week race. The goal is clear: complete essential renovations and upgrades and have their school building safe and ready to welcome students back in August. In the school construction industry, we call this the 鈥淪ummer Sprint鈥�. And, it is the ultimate test of a district鈥檚 capital improvement strategy.听

During the听hot summer听months, the core challenge for local districts is not just the work itself, but the sheer volume of projects that must be delivered simultaneously. Managing听numerous听small to mid-sized upgrades including everything from HVAC replacements to classroom refreshes very often听stretch听the already limited staff resources to their breaking point.听

Increasingly today, savvy district leaders are solving this challenge by shifting to a new construction contracting playbook: one that emphasizes Qualification-Based Selection (QBS).听听For these districts, QBS allows them to choose a trusted partner based on their expertise, capabilities and past performance rather than just the bottom-line low-bid dollars and cents. By prioritizing a contractor鈥檚 ability to deliver, districts can mitigate the risks associated with the compressed 鈥淪ummer Sprint鈥� window, while ensuring they鈥檙e keeping an eye on delivering value for taxpayers.听

Methods like Construction Management (CM) and Job Order Contracting (JOC) are both forms of QBS. While they have nuanced differences, both factor a builder鈥檚 qualifications into the award process. Whether districts decide to go with Construction Management or JOC, both help district leaders close the staffing and resource 鈥渃apacity gap鈥� through an on-going, standing partnership that offer a variety of operational benefits:听听

• Accelerated Delivery:听With a building partner already in place, the work can start in weeks rather than months, ensuring no time is wasted during the short summer vacation.听

• Transparent Pricing:听Whether using a Construction Manager or a JOC Unit Price Book, these methods provide the fiscal accountability and budget control that school boards听require.听

• Reduced Administrative Burden:听A single procurement process can cover multiple summer projects, cutting down on the staff hours needed to manage the workload.听

• Quality Consistency:听Working with a trusted, experienced team ensures that standards听remain听high even when the schedule is tight.听

• Solves the “No Bidder” Problem:听Small and mid-sized projects (like a single door replacement or emergency repair) often听fail to听attract quality bidders in a traditional cycle. By having an established partner,听you鈥檙e听guaranteed to have a high-capacity, pre-qualified builder that is ready to respond to any scope, regardless of size or market conditions.听

• Flexibility and Scalability:听These models are ideal for the small projects that dominate summer renovation听lists听 as听well as larger capital programs phased over multiple summers.听

There are other 鈥榟idden benefits鈥� of QBS for school districts, too. Ask any school CFO about their most-recent design-bid-build capital project. They鈥檒l tell you that their biggest frustration throughout the project is change orders. In many cases, low bids often lead to change orders that ultimately and unexpectedly sets up an adversarial relationship between the district and the builder. Because prices are set by the pre-negotiated Unit Price Book, the adversarial nature of traditional bidding is removed with JOC. If the scope changes, the price is simply adjusted using the same trusted catalog.听听Similarly, in a Construction Management delivery scenario, the CM performs the sealed public bidding on behalf of the district, providing a granular and transparent accounting of all costs throughout the project. No more “low-ball” bids followed by expensive surprises.

By shifting toward this new qualifications-based听selection, local school leaders can manage their aging buildings and upgrade their facilities more effectively while听remaining听responsible with taxpayer funds. This approach allows districts to stay ahead of facility needs during the 鈥淪ummer Sprint鈥� without exhausting their internal teams.听听

But, most importantly, it ensures that when everyone returns for that first bell in August or September, the school will be safe and ready for the students to learn.

Learn more about strategically tackling Summer Sprint projects at the Aug. 5 Design & Construction Symposium in Denver. Get your tickets today!

Josh听Curran is Vice President and Director of K-12 Construction for Chicago-based national infrastructure builder F.H. Paschen.听

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In addition to giving priority to rural schools and dedicated funding for Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools, the bill would allow funds to be used for emergency repair and renovation projects, greening and energy efficiency upgrades, asbestos abatement and removal and modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology.

Urging Congress to pass the bill as soon as possible, the president outlined various projects in his speech on Thursday, including a $5 billion investment in modernizing community colleges, including tribal colleges.

“There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation,” the President said in his speech. “Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been supported by both Democrats and Republicans — including many who sit here tonight. And everything in this bill will be paid for.”

The president said the purpose of the act is to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working, along with creating more jobs for construction workers, teachers, veterans, first responders and for the long-term unemployed.

“There are schools throughout this country that desperately need renovating. How can we expect our kids to do their best in places that are literally falling apart?” he said. “This is America. Every child deserves a great school — and we can give it to them, if we act now.”

In addition to the jobs created through roof and window repairs and upgrades, the bill could put thousands of teachers in every state back to work, the president said.

The logistics of the bill include providing tax credits to companies that hire new tax workers, tax relief to small business owners and tax cuts for the middle class, without adding to the deficit, he said.

The budget agreement passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years, and requires Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by the end of December.

President Obama asked that Congress increase the amount to cover the full cost of the American Jobs Act.

The act is part of a “more ambitious” deficit plan the president said would cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run.

Jared Bernstein, a former administration economics advisor and a proponent of the school rehabilitation program, and senior fellow for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research and policy group promoting the “Fix America’s Schools Today” initiative as the blueprint if Congress passes the act.

“Our schools need fixing, there are lots of people who do that kind of work that are unemployed, so the idea of marrying those two problems seemed like a partial solution to the very high unemployment rate we’re seeing in the economy in general and in construction work in particular,” he said.

Bernstein said there is currently a long backlog of repairs needed in schools that have faced budget constraints for a long time and continue to defer such maintenance.

“Children do better when their schools are in good repair – whether it’s energy savings, retrofit or insulate, fix leaks and roofs, maybe even put on solar panels geothermal pumps, it has a lasting value to schools,” he said.

Bernstein said the group has gotten positive feedback from some members of Congress.
“You want an infrastructure that can be stood up quickly,” he said. “Obviously this economic patient needs medicine right away.”

The president stated in his speech that the act was based on a bill written by a Texas Republican and a Massachusetts Democrat, adding that fifty House Republicans have proposed the same payroll tax cut outlined in the plan.

“The idea for a big boost in construction is supported by America’s largest business organization and America’s largest labor organization,” he added.

The bill would also speed up the process for contractors of the federal government to get paid faster, and cut red tape that prevents “too many rapidly growing startup companies from raising capital and going public,” he said.

He cautioned, however, that he would not wipe out basic protections that protect American citizens as workers and consumers.

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