Source: Rhino Times Greensboro

Bison Can’t Go Home

by Paul C. Clark

December 06, 2012

The High Point Central High School boys’ varsity basketball team won’t be playing any home games during the 2012-2013 school year after all.

Guilford County Schools on Dec. 4 yet again pushed back the completion date of the $5.3 million renovation of the High Point Central gym – this time for “at least a month.”

Guilford County Board of Education Chairman Alan Duncan in October called the High Point Central gym renovation project “a train wreck,” but that wreck is taking forever to play out.

According to a Tuesday, Dec. 4 email from interim Chief Operations Officer Terrence Young to administrators and school board members, the contractor on the $5.3 million project to renovate High Point Central’s main gym, KMD Construction of Salisbury, has yet again put off the completion date of Phase I of the project, this time from Dec. 15, 2012 to Jan. 17, 2013.

Phase I of the High Point Central project is the gym renovation; Phase II is a small amount of work in the main building.

The gym was originally scheduled to be finished in time for the 2011-2012 basketball season, but two successive contractors have bollixed the job so thoroughly that Guilford County Schools has moved all the games for the boys’ varsity basketball team, and possibly for other teams.

Young wrote that KMD Construction, the second contractor on the project, was responsible for the additional delay.

“This means that HPC will need to reschedule the rest of its basketball season,” Young wrote. “Since Phase I includes site work, it is possible that the latest delay may impact baseball and softball as well as wrestling. The GCS facilities team has asked for an expedited schedule for the site work, and has shared its concerns with the contractor and the surety, and is seeking advice from our legal counsel.”

Guilford County Schools Chief of Staff Nora Carr had already announced on Oct. 2 that the gym wouldn’t be finished until Dec. 15, delaying use of the gym until after the Christmas break. At that time, Guilford County Schools administrators said the gym would be ready for home games by January 2013, when the Central Bisons will be halfway through their season.

The new announcement makes it almost impossible for administrators to reschedule any Bison home games to take place in the High Point Central gym – and they would be crazy to do so, since they have no way to know whether or not the Jan. 17 completion date will be met.

The Bisons varsity boys’ team had nine games scheduled before Dec. 15, including five home games, one of which was supposed to be a Nov. 30 game against Central’s biggest rival, Andrews High School. There were no home games scheduled between Dec. 15, 2012 and Jan. 4, 2013, even before the two latest delays.

After the Oct. 2 delay, Guilford County Schools moved all the varsity games except the High Point Central-Andrews match to Southwest Guilford High School. The Andrews game was held at High Point University.

Guilford County Schools administrators said the additional delay means the reminder of High Point Central’s home basketball games will most likely be played at Southwest Guilford.

The High Point Central renovation project has, since November 2011, been run by Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, the bonding company for the original contractor on the project, Miles Builders of Charlotte.

On Nov. 8, 2011, the school board voted unanimously to terminate its contract with Miles Builders. The school board claimed that Miles Builders had violated the contract in multiple ways, including falling months behind schedule and not paying subcontractors on time.

In April 2011, the bonding company on the project hired KMD to take over, and, in December 2012, more than a year after the school board fired Miles Builders, the job still isn’t done.

In April, the bonding company agreed to pay Guilford County Schools the difference between the remaining balance on the Miles Builders contract and the amount of the KMD Construction bid, which was $4,422,680. The rest of the $5.3 million is non-construction costs.

The additional delay increases the chance of an eventual lawsuit between Guilford County Schools and the bonding company, as each delay increases the cost to Guilford County Schools of working around the construction project, monitoring the project and rescheduling games.

“Staff is monitoring the situation on-site on a daily basis as well,” Young wrote. “We are preparing communications for the principal to share with parents and community members; however, we wanted to make Board members aware of this first.”

The school board on Oct. 29 held a meeting at High Point Central to try to pacify angry parents after the last delay of the gym renovation. Duncan and school board members Sandra Alexander, Paul Daniels and Darlene Garrett, who attended the meeting, got an earful from parents and apologized profusely for the delay. It’s hard to imagine any apologies that will placate parents this time.

On Wednesday, Nov. 28, the school board held a public forum at Southwest Guilford High School on two issues: whether the school board should continue to pursue its dead-in-the-water $72 million airport area high school, and if not, how it should spend the $69 million left over from the project, as well as millions left over from other projects.

High Point Central supporters packed that meeting, demanding not only that the gym be finished but that High Point Central be thoroughly renovated and expanded.