Shiner school project gets education agency aid
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Barry Halvorson, Victoria Advocate Reporter

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SHINER - A major organization in Texas school politics has come in on the side of the Shiner school district's use of a lease-purchase agreement to finance the construction of the district's new campus.

District Superintendent Trey Lawrence said the Texas Association of School Boards Legal Assistance Fund has filed a brief with the Texas Attorney General in response to Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley's request for a ruling regarding the district's use of lease-purchase to fund the new school construction project.

"This is a big shot in the arm for the district to have such a powerful organization submit a brief on our behalf," Lawrence said. "Dr. Neeley's questions came out of an audit of the district done by the TEA and their stance was that lease-purchase should be competitively bid but there was no legal precedent for that, which is why the ruling was asked for. Our contention has always been that they are not competitive and competitive bidding has never been done before in cases like this one. And TASB has now agreed we did the right thing."

The legal assistance fund is made up of the TASB, which represents the about 1,042 public school districts in the state; The Texas Association of School Administrators, which represents superintendents and other administrators; and the Texas Council of School Attorneys, which is made up of attorneys representing more than 90 percent of the state's public school districts.

Neely posed four questions to the attorney general regarding competitive bidding in regards to lease purchase agreements and financial consultant contracts.

In regards to a specific question asking if school districts are required to use competitive bids for lease purchase agreements, the TASB LAF answered the question was "too general for a universal answer" and that "a lease purchase agreement is a financing mechanism and not a competitive procurement arrangement." The organization further urged the question be answered "no."

In regards to procedures for obtaining professional services, the legal assistance fund pointed out such procedures are exempted from competitive bidding standards and under the government code such contracts be awarded on the basis of "demonstrated competence and qualifications to perform the services and for a fair and reasonable price."

The AG ruling is expected sometime in December, Lawrence said. There are three potential outcomes - that the AG rules lease-purchase should be competitive, that the AG rules it should not be competitive or that the issue is so cloudy that the legislature will have to address it during their next session.

"Even if they rule it should be competitive, I don't think it will impact our district or board," Lawrence said. "If they make the ruling retroactive to Shiner, then they will have to make it retroactive for all school districts that have used lease-purchase agreements and there are a lot of those in this area as well as around the state. If anything, it would simply set a precedent for the future."

The $7.2 million construction project, which will provide the district with combined elementary, middle school and high school campus, is about 30 percent complete, Lawrence said. "And currently we're under budget," he said. "Sterling Structures (the contractor) and JSA Architects have done a great job along those lines and have been able to add parts of the project that were eliminated back in and still remain under budget. But we are slightly behind on our time schedule."

Lawrence explained that due to the hot, dry weather at the start of the year, the project ran into difficulties when it came to digging utility lines and as a result the initial concrete pours were delayed.

"But we are still shooting for a January move in date as originally planned," he said. "We'd like to be able to make the move during the Christmas break. I know our kids want in the new building bad and I've had some veteran teachers who have delayed their retirement for a year just for the opportunity to teach in the new building. If we can't make it in January, we might try to make the move during spring break. But we don't want to slap things together so we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I've been taking teachers over for tours of the site and they when they come out they are always impressed and excited about the possibilities."

Barry Halvorson is a reporter for The Victoria Advocate.
Contact him at 361-798-3888, or by e-mail at hvilladv@vicad.com.

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