F.H. Paschen delivered a variety of “Summer Sprint” projects for Berwyn South School District 100, including work on a new education center opening this year. | Photo Credit: Courtesy of F.H. Paschen
By Josh Curran
As the buses pull away from schools on the final day of school this June, a new race begins. For students, summer is a time for family vacations and sleep-away camps. But, for school leaders, maintenance crews and elected school boards, it is the start of an unforgiving 10-week race. The goal is clear: complete essential renovations and upgrades and have their school building safe and ready to welcome students back in August. In the school construction industry, we call this the “Summer Sprint”. And, it is the ultimate test of a district’s capital improvement strategy.
During the hot summer months, the core challenge for local districts is not just the work itself, but the sheer volume of projects that must be delivered simultaneously. Managing numerous small to mid-sized upgrades including everything from HVAC replacements to classroom refreshes very often stretch the already limited staff resources to their breaking point.
Increasingly today, savvy district leaders are solving this challenge by shifting to a new construction contracting playbook: one that emphasizes Qualification-Based Selection (QBS). For these districts, QBS allows them to choose a trusted partner based on their expertise, capabilities and past performance rather than just the bottom-line low-bid dollars and cents. By prioritizing a contractor’s ability to deliver, districts can mitigate the risks associated with the compressed “Summer Sprint” window, while ensuring they’re keeping an eye on delivering value for taxpayers.
Methods like Construction Management (CM) and Job Order Contracting (JOC) are both forms of QBS. While they have nuanced differences, both factor a builder’s qualifications into the award process. Whether districts decide to go with Construction Management or JOC, both help district leaders close the staffing and resource “capacity gap” through an on-going, standing partnership that offer a variety of operational benefits:
- Accelerated Delivery: With a building partner already in place, the work can start in weeks rather than months, ensuring no time is wasted during the short summer vacation.
- Transparent Pricing: Whether using a Construction Manager or a JOC Unit Price Book, these methods provide the fiscal accountability and budget control that school boards require.
- Reduced Administrative Burden: A single procurement process can cover multiple summer projects, cutting down on the staff hours needed to manage the workload.
- Quality Consistency: Working with a trusted, experienced team ensures that standards remain high even when the schedule is tight.
- Solves the “No Bidder” Problem: Small and mid-sized projects (like a single door replacement or emergency repair) often fail to attract quality bidders in a traditional cycle. By having an established partner, you’re guaranteed to have a high-capacity, pre-qualified builder that is ready to respond to any scope, regardless of size or market conditions.
- Flexibility and Scalability: These models are ideal for the small projects that dominate summer renovation lists as well as larger capital programs phased over multiple summers.
There are other ‘hidden benefits’ of QBS for school districts, too. Ask any school CFO about their most-recent design-bid-build capital project. They’ll tell you that their biggest frustration throughout the project is change orders. In many cases, low bids often lead to change orders that ultimately and unexpectedly sets up an adversarial relationship between the district and the builder. Because prices are set by the pre-negotiated Unit Price Book, the adversarial nature of traditional bidding is removed with JOC. If the scope changes, the price is simply adjusted using the same trusted catalog. Similarly, in a Construction Management delivery scenario, the CM performs the sealed public bidding on behalf of the district, providing a granular and transparent accounting of all costs throughout the project. No more “low-ball” bids followed by expensive surprises.
By shifting toward this new qualifications-based selection, local school leaders can manage their aging buildings and upgrade their facilities more effectively while remaining responsible with taxpayer funds. This approach allows districts to stay ahead of facility needs during the “Summer Sprint” without exhausting their internal teams.
But, most importantly, it ensures that when everyone returns for that first bell in August or September, the school will be safe and ready for the students to learn.
Josh Curran is Vice President and Director of K-12 Construction for Chicago-based national infrastructure builder F.H. Paschen.