September 20, 2022 Update

Since my last update, we have finalized our agreement to hire IBI Group architects. We begin Master Planning meetings this week to nail down the general design of the new/remodeled facility. We will also be advertising for proposals for construction management firms, with the goal of having a recommendation for the school board at the October meeting. 

As we begin to generate some more details of the project, we will try to make those available on the website. This blog will provide a link.

Last night, at a special board meeting and following an extensive selection process, IBI was selected as the designer (architect) for the bond projects. IBI architect Levi Patterson worked with the district during our recent facility review and long-range facility planning process as well as the pre-bond planning process. We are excited to continue working with Levi and IBI and we trust that they will be the best possible result to our district.

Well, it has been a while since I posted on the construction blog. Some of that was due to me being on vacation, but mostly it is because we have been waiting for some back and forth between the architect and the management firm on fee negotiations.

Meanwhile, we have contracted with several specialty engineering firms to do the preparatory work prior to the architects getting started. This includes such things as geotechnical and hazardous materials surveys. These should be all wrapped up by September.

Hopefully, we will have the architects onboard very soon and the design process can get underway in earnest. 

We have three fronts that we are currently working on with regards to the bond. One is the process of getting our S&P bond rating so whoever is interested in buying the bonds knows the risk level. We are scheduled to find out the rating tomorrow sometime, which then allows for the sale of the bonds to proceed. 

Second, we finished the architectural proposal reviews and firm interviews over the past week. HMK is now representing the district in a fee negotiation with our first choice with the goal being board approval in August. 

Third, HMK is working with us to retain contractors who can do some required preliminary site evaluation surveys, namely hazardous materials and topographical surveys. 

As we head into the heat of summer, we are making progress on the necessary item on our bond timeline. There are two important issues that we are in the middle of right now. One is to get the bonds sold, hopefully by early August. We are working with Piper Sandler, Inc. as our underwriter. The second item is to select an architect. We put out a request for proposals and have received proposals from four different architects. These proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by a committee over the next week, resulting in a recommendation to the school board to retain one of those architectural firms.

Last Wednesday, June 22, we held a mandatory "pre-design proposal" meeting for any architects who are interested in submitting a proposal to the district for their services. This meeting, run by David McKay from HMK, was attended by six architectural firms, all of whom have extensive experience in K-12 design projects. 

On Friday, July 15, a committee will meet to review and score design services proposals, and will then forward a recommendation to the school board. The plan is to have an architectural firm officially hired at the August board meeting. 

The Election Is Certified!! The final vote tally was 781-757.

Thank you to all who worked to pass this bond for Amity Schools. It was a very heavy lift under difficult circumstances, but it will provide much-needed improvements to the learning conditions at both the Middle and High Schools. The goal is for the bonds to be sold before August and for an architect to be selected and under contract by the middle of August. 

Thanks, again, to all who made this bond passage possible!

Well, it appears we are just down to a little formality now on the election results. Yamhill County Clerk has certified results today (668 Yes, 670 No) and Polk County has posted their final results earlier this week (113 Yes, 87 No). So we have an approved bond measure, 781 - 757. This is a very significant result as we are all well aware of the challenging economic conditions currently facing us.

I have heard several people say that they voted no because either they didn't think they could afford two bonds at the same time or because they couldn't afford a $3.17/$1000 increase in their taxes. Please remember that this bond is replacing the expiring bond that was passed in 2002, so there will not be two concurrent bonds. Also, the increase in tax rate between the expiring bond and the new bond is actually about $1.60/$1000. That means that a tax bill increase on a $500,000 assessed value would be about $800/year initially. Clearly, we could have done a better job of communicating this to avoid some confusion.

We have a rough timeline for the next couple of months, which mainly involves the selection of an architect. The scope of the work is being advertised to architects. Those interested in potentially submitting a proposal to the board will have an opportunity to walk through the facilities in a couple of weeks. There will be an extensive review and evaluation of architect proposals in July with a recommendation being made to the board.  The board will vote to approve an architectural firm at the August meeting. 

From Amity Superintendent Jeff Clark:

This is a very exciting time for Amity School District as we await the final certification of the May election results on our construction bond measure. Currently, both Polk and Yamhill county clerks are in the verification process for ballots that had signature discrepancies. There were eight ballots in Yamhill and five in Polk that had our measure on them. Even if all of these ballots were resolved and were "no" votes, we would still be passing by an 8 vote margin! So, unless there is some other unexpected reason for the election results to be invalidated, we seem to be in the clear. (I try not to get too excited until I have a final certification!)

I plan to use this blog to keep you all updated on the process. We have retained an underwriter, Piper Sandler & Co., (who will assist in the sale of the bonds) and a bond attorney, Hawkins, Delafield & Wood (who makes sure all the legal issues involving the bond are handled properly). 

I will try to update you no less than weekly, more often if there is significant news.