<strong>From staff reports</strong>

The independent citizen-led committee tasked with monitoring all building projects, schedules, budgets and expenditures from the Beaufort County School District’s November 2019 bond referendum made its second report to the Board of Education and the public on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The CLOC meets monthly and makes quarterly reports to the Board of Education that are posted to the committee’s website. CLOC members include CPAs, urban planners, civil engineers and project managers.

The committee has reviewed the processes, procedures and the administration of the bond referendum projects to date and reports the following:

The May River and River Ridge projects are on time and under budget. The committee’s “traffic light” monitoring process codes these projects as “green.” Both sites were visited by the Project Subcommittee and the sites represent the project status as reported. Construction quality at each site is excellent. When completed, the River Ridge and May River projects will be more than $1 million under their proposed budgets. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the Construction Management at Risk Model for projects as a sound approach on delivering proposed referendum projects.

A review of the summer work projects included a visit to Beaufort High School to review the status of progress on athletic facilities. The turf upgrade to the football stadium has progressed nicely, and the project is first class in all aspects. One area of summer work that has shown improvement since our last Board update is the technology/infrastructure projects. Although improved, a few sites are still behind schedule due to scope clarifications. Schedule recovery is expected by the end of September.

The processes in place regarding budgeting, contracts, procurement and pay application for projects are sound and continue to provide adequate independence and proper chart of authority review. The Finance Subcommittee conducts reviews to validate these processes.

<strong>Cash Flow versus<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>Actual Expenses</strong>

Cash Flow Projections versus Actual Expenses for all of the referendum projects is behind schedule, however an improvement in catch-up has been seen this quarter. This can be expected as final project planning is implemented and construction contracts agreed during the initial phase of such a large-scope referendum. Corrective actions are in place to ramp up spending to assure completion of the proposed projects within the four-year time frame.

The Finance Subcommittee has verified the current spending status with $15.92 million spent to date with $66 million encumbered but not spent. With the total referendum of $344.6 million, $262.6 million remains to be spent. Through August 2020, approximately 9.5 percent of the referendum work has been completed with 4.6 percent of the total referendum<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>