<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 on June 23 made its second report to the Board of Education and the public.

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.

<strong>CLOC’s second-quarter report</strong>

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. We have established a traffic light process to rate all projects: green for on schedule; yellow for caution with corrective action to recover the project schedule; and red, which requires a formal proposed corrective action to bring the project on schedule. May River and River Ridge are both Green Lights.

After the bond referendum was approved by the voters and before the initial bond proceeds were received, the district expended some funds from 8 percent funds. The CLOC’s Finance Subcommittee has verified the 8 percent funds were returned to the district after the initial bond proceeds were received. We have received confirmation from Beaufort County (the holder of the bond proceeds) that the funds were returned to the school district, and plan on ascertaining that the transactions were properly reflected in the June 30, 2020 financial statements once the statements become available.

The processes in place regarding budgeting, contracts, procurement and pay applications for projects is sound and provides adequate independence and proper chart of authority review.

A review of the summer work projects has one area noted as yellow. The technology/infrastructure projects are behind schedule due to scope clarifications. A schedule discovery is expected.

On an ongoing basis, the committee is identifying areas that should be reviewed to ensure that we remain on target or measure performance.

<strong>Cash Flow versus Actual Expenses</strong>

Cash flow projections versus actual expenses for all of the referendum projects is behind schedule. 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.

<strong>CBRE Heery Contract</strong>

The Heery contract was executed in April for Project and Program Management. We have begun development of performance metrics in conjunction with the district’s Operations Division to measure the effectiveness of Heery’s performance.