School to pay $75,000 in pre-bond services

In agreement with Construction Management firm

 

ALMONT — Following a closed session discussion during their regular monthly meeting August 26, the Almont school board later reopened the public portion of the meeting and took action to pay a negotiated amount of pre-bond service charges to a construction management firm.

Almont Community Schools Supt. Kimberly VonHiltmayer released a statement Wednesday, after the Tri-City Times press deadline, saying: “On Monday night (after the Closed Session), the Almont Board of Education went into Open Session and approved the revised contract amount of $75,000 offered by and payable to Roncelli Inc. for full and final payment of all pre-bond services.”

In a related story regarding the Roncelli additional payment in their August 28 issue, the Tri-City Times accurately reported the construction management firm had requested an additional $32,500 on top of the $65,000 the district owed them, as discussed during the board’s August 20 meeting.

Some board members expressed concern about documents that had been signed by Supt. VonHiltmayer and former Board President Angela Edwards back in March. The signed document came to light during the August 20 work session meeting.

Among those not happy learning of the higher amount was board member Sue Frederiksen, calling in to question the board’s transparency, or lack thereof.

“This is completely unacceptable,” she said after learning of the proposed payment following the second failed bond attempt. “I have some concerns and this is rather shocking to me. I was under the impression we were paying the $65,000 and then (months later) I learn it’s $97,500. This is a total lack of transparency to this board and in complete violation of our school policy.”

Supt. VonHiltmayer said she had been in touch with the district’s legal team and was under the impression that both she and Edwards were within their rights to sign on behalf of the board.

Following the August 20 meeting, the superintendent reached out once again to the district’s legal team and with Roncelli, to see if a revised negotiated (lower) amount get be reached.

The information from those meetings was shared with the board during closed session on August 26, before a vote to approve a $75,000 payment was made.

Roncelli was seeking payment for services rendered for pre-bond work done for the district. The firm had prepared numerous documents prior to each of the failed bond elections earlier this year.