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Where was the oversight?

School board, panel blame each other for failed projects

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The chairwoman of the Beaufort County Board of Education, Dale Friedman, said last week that she believed that the oversight of the $120 million school-construction projects was sufficient.

But some school board members and others -- including lawyers and law-enforcement investigators -- are reviewing financial records related to the 2000 referendum.

PANEL EFFECTIVE?

The 12-member Facilities 2005 Oversight Committee was a group of residents separate from the school board and administration responsible for keeping the public up to date on the building programs.

The first chairman of that group was U.S. Marine Corps Ret. Brigadier Gen. Steve Cheney, formerly commanding officer at Parris Island and currently president of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.

In a recent interview, Cheney said, "One of the purposes of the committee was to be an ombudsman that would look at (the building projects) without prejudice."

He said the committee had access to contractors and documents and made regular visits to building sites.

"The only thing that I found very disappointing," he said, "was that the (north-area high school and district offices) went into the twilight zone. And that was not the fault of any contractor. It was the fault of the school board.

"My personal angst is with the school board ... and the politics involved in not getting the north-area high school and district offices done."

Cheney left the committee in 2003 after serving for two years.

In the next couple of years, two more chairmen and members came and went.

In a letter to the editor of The Island Packet in May 2004, board member Pam Edwards wrote, "At a Policy Governance Committee meeting, a discussion took place over the need for a facilities update from (Don) Altman (of AAG, the project manager on the 2000 referendum projects) and the Facilities Oversight Committee chairman.

"Ms. Friedman, who chairs the governance committee, felt that the board had no right to ask for an update from the Facilities Oversight Committee because the board has a governance policy that gives full authority to the superintendent to address all facilities ... ."

In August 2005, some members of the Beaufort County school board questioned whether the citizens' committee was effective.

"That committee was so watered down so there'd be less interference," said board Vice Chairman Richard Tritschler. "There was a lot of oversight in the 1995 referendum projects and that was seen as a thorn in the side by some people in the district."

Board member Rick Caporale said at the time that the committee was "virtually useless."

"What happened was that for the 1995 (referendum), we had a cracker-jack oversight committee," he said in an interview Friday. "In the 2000 (referendum), things didn't work as well. It got to the point where some committee members were complaining. When that happens, you know something is drastically wrong."

BEING A WATCHDOG

In many school districts, a committee made up of school board members is created to oversee construction issues. Such panels report to the board, providing fellow board members with updates on construction issues.

The Greenville County School District took it a step further when it embarked on a 70-school, $933 million building plan in 2002.

That district has several checks and balances for oversight of large-scale building projects. First, it contracts with a company called Institutional Resources that works as the program manager for construction projects. Then, within the district there's a facilities department, headed by an executive director of facilities management whose background is construction, said Oby Lyles, spokesman for the district.

Oversight of spending is handled by a nonprofit arm of the school board whose members include a person picked by the board. The current appointee has a background in construction and is responsible for ensuring that the building plans meet contract terms.

"This system has worked very well for us," Lyles said. "The board and administration wanted to make sure there were those checks and balances."

In Beaufort County, the board had its own building oversight committee, made up of board members, in 2000. But it was disbanded and another was not formed until 2005.

IMPROPER CHANGES?

A district policy called "Executive Limitations" limits the authority of the superintendent. One part of that policy says the board is responsible for approving all change orders to consultant contracts or contract amendments of more than $25,000.

Board member David Chase, who was elected in 2004 to represent Sun City Hilton Head and Okatie and is a semiretired CEO and president of an architectural firm, said he thinks there were change orders that should have come before the board related to the consulting contract for GMK Associates, construction manager for projects north of the Broad River.

"I can't speak for when I wasn't on the board, but there were $300,000 in change orders to GMK's contract in April 2005 that I believe did not come before the board for approval," he said, adding that there were three changes and each was more than $25,000.

School board meeting minutes do not show those change orders coming before the board, either.

"When reviewing the files we got in November 2005, I noticed $300,000 in contract changes," Chase said. "I was the facilities chair in spring 2005 and, to the best of my recollection, those change orders did not come before the Facilities Committee or before the board."

TAKING ANOTHER LOOK

In 2003, the Beaufort County School District hired veteran school planner Kelley Carey as a consultant to take a look at current and future needs for school buildings. Carey has been in the schools planning business for more than 30 years and runs Hilton Head Island-based Associated Planning & Research.

According to board member Edwards, Carey accompanied Altman and then-assistant superintendent Edna Crews on construction-site visits and pointed out major problems in planning, enrollment projections, attendance zones and other problems.

For example, Carey, who declined comment for this story, said there were too few students in attendance zones to justify building the north-area high school and Beaufort Middle School, and walls between classrooms at Shell Point Elementary School had been torn down to expand classrooms before actual space needs were determined.

Edwards said when Carey started pointing asking questions, he was fired by the district.

Contact Sally Mahan at 706-8197 or . To comment on this story, please go to islandpacket.com.

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