The Cape Girardeau school board hired new personnel and awarded a contract to renovate Clippard Elementary School during a special meeting Monday.
The board hired 10 certified and classified employees during the meeting, including Sydney Herbst to replace Stan Seiler as principal at Clippard next fall. Seiler resigned last month to take a position in Jackson School District.
Herbst has 11 years teaching experience in Cape Girardeau elementary schools and last spring became assistant principal at Alma Schrader and a remedial math teacher at Jefferson school. However, she has worked as acting principal at Washington school most of the year to replace Pamela Barnes, who is on maternity leave.
In other action the board awarded Sides Construction a contract to renovate Clippard school for $1,122,733.
Three companies submitted bids for the contract, but the low bid from Zoellner Construction was disqualified due to miscalculation of its base bid.
Planned renovations to Clippard include the installation of air conditioning, new windows and doors, a 30-station computer lab and a new bell system. Other renovations include two full-sized kindergarten rooms, increased storage space, electric upgrades, an enlarged library and general building repairs.
District architect Tom Holshouser said the bids were higher than the estimate of $741,196 in the district's long-range master plan.
"The bids were about 16 percent over our estimate," said Holshouser. "With the low bidder, it looked good, but he made a big mistake (in his base bid)."
Superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent and board member Bob Blank were absent from the meeting, which was held at the district administrative office.
Clippard School bids
General Contractor: Kiefner Brothers
Base Bid: $1,185,000
Alternate A1 to replace entry doors: $3,750
Total Bid: $1,188,750
General Contractor: Sides Construction
Base Bid: $1,118,333
Alternate A1 to replace entry doors: $4,400
Total Bid: $1,122,733
General Contractor: Zoellner Construction
Disqualified due to error in submitted bid
Base Bid: $938,580,000 submitted inaccurately
actual bid -- $1,075,404.03
Alternate A1 to replace entry doors: $3,500
Total Actual Bid: $1,078,904.03
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.