The Beverly Hills Unified School District’s construction program still includes work at Beverly Hills High School and El Rodeo Elementary. (photo courtesy of the BHUSD)

Although the total figure of the Beverly Hills Unified School District’s building construction budget shortfall is unknown, its school board president, Mary Wells, is hopeful that a new bond manager will provide a better picture of the program’s financial future.

The current bond manager, Team Concept Development Services Inc., reported a budget shortfall of approximately $130 million in the BHUSD’s construction program in October. However, TCDS reported an $89 million shortage in a later presentation.

“It’s all speculation, so until we get a new [construction manager] in and we can get a true assessment of what things cost, it’s hard to say,” Wells said.

TCDS’s contact will end on July 17, and the board is working to have a replacement in place by that time. The board discussed applicants during its May 24 meeting.

Seven companies responded to the board’s request for proposals, and TCDS was not among them. Their proposals, which includes work at El Rodeo Elementary School and Beverly Hills High School, were not discussed at the meeting. However, in an interview, Wells said competitive pricing should benefit the district.

“Early indication is showing that, by going out to competitive bid, we will get better pricing,” she added. “They didn’t have a competitive bidding process when TCDS was hired.”

Wells said the board also put out an RFP for a new inspector of records, as the district’s current inspector was an employee of TCDS. She said a new inspector of records could also save the district money.

“The board of education is very pleased that we received such a positive response to our RFP along with competitive pricing for both the construction management services and the inspector of record,” Wells said. “We are now moving quickly to the vetting process. We are committed to transparency and accountability and completing our program in a timely fashion.”

Vice President Noah Margo said there is no way of knowing whether a new construction manager will save the district money – except in hindsight.

“We could hire a firm that charges less per hour, but they may bill us for more hours,” he said.

Margo said the board can ask about a company’s staffing levels and their hourly rates, but the firm could say that they need more employees for a particular job.

“Nobody knows,” he added. “Could it save the district money? Potentially. Except that, if it costs us time – because you’d have to get a new firm up to speed, and they don’t have the institutional knowledge that a program that has been running five years has – that could cost you time, and in construction, time is money.”

In previous board meetings, Margo has been outspoken about retaining TCDS, and he said his views on that have not changed.

“We should have sat down with them and discussed [any issues the board had] instead of completely scrapping the program,” he said, adding that “he can’t condemn” any board member trying to spend bond money in the most efficient way possible. “After having done the program for five years in different configurations, we had landed on something that seemed to be working with TCDS. Why choose to replace them as opposed to work with them? I’ll never know.”