MCISD approves Midkiff Playground Equipment Project
This week, the Mission Consolidated Independent School District held a board meeting at Bryan Elementary school to discuss the new Midkiff Elementary School Playground Equipment Project, the Tom Landry Stadium Renovations Project and honored several students.
Board members approved the project and proposed budget for the Midkiff Elementary School Playground Equipment Project. The estimated costs for this project are $55,000, and the district plans to get this budget from the campus Parent Teacher Organization and fundraising funds.
The board also approved structural engineering services for this project, and will be utilizing Ricardo Hinojosa, from Hinojosa Engineering, Inc. to carry out the plans for Midkiff.
Ricardo Rivera, the Assistant Superintendent for Operations at MCISD, presented on the Tom Landry Stadium Renovations Project. The board carried motions involving installing sound system raceways, which will take an additional 14 delay days of work from Alvarado Architects and Holchemont LTD.
The board also approved a grievance agreement for the Tom Landry Stadium Renovations Project. The agreement will ensure $2,350 credit back to the district because of the use of district utilities as part of the project.
In terms of legal action regarding parking lot repairs for the same project, the board approved a motion to have them use the self-help provision of the contract.
The district will do the repairs to the parking lot, and release the contract for Holchemont Ltd. to do the repairs. Money will be kept from whatever funds are owed to the contractor at that point in the project process.
MCISD has also approved the budget for the basic architectural and engineering services for the Leo Najo Baseball Stadium and the Veterans Memorial High School Football Stadium Bleacher project. After some discussion debating on cost efficiency of going forth on the project with Alvarado Architects & Associates, Inc.
The budget for this project will be set at $1,120,000, and the architect’s fee would be 6.75 percent of the total construction costs. The board approved the budget, but plans to wait on entering a contract with an architect in order to ascertain if a cheaper option is possible.
During the meeting, the board was set to award a contract for independent financial audit services. The item was presented by Rumalda Ruiz, the Assistant Superintendent for Finance, and it was pulled from the agenda for further review.
“We did review the proposals we received, and administration doesn’t have a recommendation,” Ruiz said. “We visited with our existing independent auditor, we had an extensive meeting with them on Monday, and we discussed the timeline we’re going to follow, and administration will continue using their services.”
The Education Foundation of Mission CISD gave a presentation about their annual report during the meeting, and Gus Martinez spoke on the foundation’s behalf. The 501(c)(3) has been active for four years.
“It’s a non-profit, so all the proceeds we get we give back in student scholarships and teacher grants,”
Martinez said. “To date, we’ve raised close to a quarter million dollars.”
According to Martinez, as of this month the foundation is at about $70,000. He mentioned the Summer Concert Spectacular that will take place in July, which will feature The Spazmatics. The event will happen at the Mission Event Center.
Craig Verley, the MCISD Director of Public Relations and Marketing, presented 222 students with various achievements at the board of trustees meeting.
“This time of year gets to be crazy busy, but in a good way,” Verley said. “A lot of students start advancing very quickly throughout the spring semester to state-level competitions, which in turn gets them more recognitions.”
