Miron Construction, Wendel to lead school referendum projects

Miron Construction will be the general contractor for the bulk of the work under the recently approved referendum at Medford Area Public Schools with Wendel Companies of Eau Claire as the project architects.

At Monday’s school board meeting, district administrator Laura Lundy reported that 14 firms had submitted qualifications for the project. A selection committee that included board and administration went through the proposals from the firms and narrowed the list to four to five. They conducted interviews with each of those firms on December 12 and made the recommendation to go with Miron and Wendel.

Board members approved the recommendation with the understanding that Miron and Wendel will come in under the budgeted amount for their projects. Lundy explained that while the entire referendum is $22.6 million, the district will be contracting with the architects and general contractors for about $16 million of the projects. These projects include the work to the tech ed building, the additional classrooms and classroom renovations at the high school, and renovation of all bathrooms at the high school and by the gym in the middle school, replacement of the north cafeteria doors at the Medford Area Middle School, replacement of asbestos in the flooring at the high school and removal of berms at Medford Area Elementary School. Included in this are the necessary furnishings for the spaces.

The remaining $6.6 million in projects will be overseen by Director of Buildings & Grounds Adam Schwarz as district maintenance projects. These projects include fire alarm upgrades, boiler replacement, blacktopping, roof work at Medford elementary and the middle school, bleachers at MAMS, electric service upgrades, tennis court resurfacing and plumbing replacement of galvanized piping.

Board member Don Everhard asked how the committee came to its decision to recommend Miron and Wendel.

Lundy explained they had a rubric that included scoring for different areas including their costs, their vision for the project, and their willingness to work with local contractors to impact the local economy.

According to board member John Zuleger, who served on the selection committee, Miron’s connections with the local community and willingness to work with local subcontractors was a major plus. “It was a long process,” said board president Dave Fleegel. He said he feels the district will be in good shape as long as they come back with where they need them to be.

With the formal approval from the school board, the design and planning stages will begin with a kick-off meeting scheduled for Dec. 18 where they will finalize terms and timelines. Once a contract is written up it will be reviewed by the district’s legal counsel. Over the Christmas break, the architects will be using technology to do 3D imaging within the existing classrooms, which will assist in the design process going forward.

Lundy said that while work may begin this spring and summer on the smaller, district-driven maintenance projects, actual construction on the major work on connecting the tech ed building and the additional classrooms is not likely to take place until spring and summer of 2026 as the design process is just beginning.

Food service contract

Every five years the district has to put the food service contract out through a proposal process to comply with state and federal rules. The current contract with A’viands is up at the end of the school year and the process is underway to get a new contract.

According to finance director Audra Brooks, the district is limited under state and federal rules about how they go about selecting a new food service provider. At Monday’s finance committee meeting held prior to the school board meeting, there was a lengthy discussion over what weight to assign to each of the nine criteria the district can look at in making a decision. She explained that they would have 100 points to spread over the 9 categories.

Brooks noted that by rule, meal cost had to have the most points of any area. She presented a proposal to have it at 25 points for cost with another 15 points for menu selection and 10 points for local purchasing and promotion of the food service program with the remaining areas getting five points each.

Zuleger proposed lowering the weight of the cost down to 20 points and putting greater emphasis on menu selection and purchasing of local foods.

Brooks said that while they can do that, she cautioned that it could open the district up for a large increase in meal costs. “By emphasizing higher in other areas we may sacrifice cost,” Brooks said.

Instead Brooks proposed having the vendors come to the district with what they can do for local options and menu selection. “Let them say ‘This is what they will provide,’” Brooks said.

“So it is a negotiating tactic,” said board member Brian Hallgren.

Brooks noted that generally, price is the decision making area among districts for food service contracts. She said that there are efforts to have schools be forced to take the low bids and the compromise has been that they have to be competitive in their prices.

She explained that if one company came in at $4 a meal and another company came in at $4.50 per meal the district would have to award full points to the company with the lower meal cost.

Board members concern is that a focus on school lunch price comes at the expense of quality of the meals being served. Zuleger said he would like to see more local, and healthier foods being served which he said will help with students eating enough and being full longer.

About 42% of the school district is currently receiving free or reduced lunch under federal school lunch programs. Zuleger said that as a parent who is not on free and reduced lunches, he would sooner pay more and get a better quality meal and more local options. He said 40% of the kids and families would not be impacted at all with slightly higher meal costs because they are on free and reduced lunch.

Zuleger said the district could also tap into some of the approximately $1 million in fund balance in the food service account to help minimize the impact of an increase in price. Brooks said if the price is too high, the district may be forced by the state to increase meal costs regardless of how much is in the food service fund balance.

Zuelger noted that the majority of responses from a student survey of the food services was the message of “feed me more and feed me better.” While portion sizes are set at the federal level, he said the district could look for better quality. It was noted that district already offers unlimited fruits and vegetables to students.

Hallgren noted that there are only really two areas that are quantitive on the whole list and expressed frustration at the remainder being gray areas.

“Cost will usually win the day,” Brooks said. Committee members recommended and the board approved a weighting to have 25 points for price, 15 each for menu selection and local purchasing with the others at five points. The proposal process will continue into the spring with the board to make a decision on a potential new vendor at the May board meeting.

In other business, board members:

• Directed Brooks to look into options for renting a meal vending machine that would be connected to the students’ food service accounts. The district has been looking at this as an option for students. However, it was noted that students on free and reduced would not be able to get a second lunch in a day and that meals would not be available for purchase after about 2 p.m., defeating the intent to have an option for those going to sports games or practices.

• Approved contracting with K& B Refrigeration in Medford for the condenser units for the coolers in the kitchens at the high school and Medford Area Elementary School at a cost of $46,500. This is significantly lower than the second bidder, Ron Refrigeration who had a bid of abut $87,000 due to upgrading the systems to digital controls.

• Received the 2024 audit. The audit did not show any substantial areas of concern and has been approved by the DPI. Lundy praised Brooks for her work in getting the audit completed.