4/09/2013
CHICAGO – The Public Building Commission of Chicago (PBC) today announced a plan to kick-off the CPS 2013 School Investment Program. This program will deliver a welcoming educational environment with improved amenities to thousands of Chicago Public School students at the start of school in August.
The CPS 2013 School Investment Program will afford more than $220M in capital investment to over 100 schools including: $121M for welcoming schools (an additional $24M remains at CPS to cover furniture, equipment, and related costs and $10M will cover iPads, for total investment of $155M); $14M for IB program expansion; $28M for OS4 and $9M for turnarounds; $48M for co-locations. The PBC will deliver this Program via the Design/Build delivery method, a tool that contracts with a single entity provider of both professional services and construction. This approach provides for increased accountability and can generate material cost and time savings by having the professional services providers and construction contractors work directly together throughout the project.
Investments in the welcoming schools include: air conditioning in every classroom, a library in every school, and new and upgraded technology supports, including expanded Internet bandwidth and computer, engineering, media and science labs.
The PBC also took action today to undertake a building program in support of CPS’ full day kindergarten initiative. The PBC will deliver a Full-Day Kindergarten Modular Program in seven CPS elementary schools currently accommodating half-day kindergarten classes in one classroom. To ready these schools for CPS full-day kindergarten this August, multiple modular classrooms will be installed in each school for a project budget of approximately $11.2 million.
The PBC will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Design/Build entities today. Successful respondents will be awarded small groups of facilities (comprised of no more than $12M of work each) affording local and M/WBE prime contractors increased opportunity. In further keeping with the PBC’s commitment to Economic Sustainability, the PBC intends to include goals for 30% Minority Owned Business Participation and 5% Women Owned Business Participation for each Design Build team (higher than the standard 24% MBE and 4% WBE). Pursuant to PBC requirements, the workforce will include at least 50% of the hours to be worked by City residents and local hiring from defined community areas to meet or exceed 7.5% of hours worked. The PBC also intends to include hiring requirements for CPS students in the RFP.
The PBC has scheduled an Outreach event for interested construction and design firms. The event will be held at Kennedy-King College in the Main Theater located on 740 West 63rd Street on Friday April 12, 2013 from 9:00 a.m. until11:00 a.m. Additional outreach and workforce employment sessions are being scheduled and will be published on the PBC website.
“The PBC is committed to our continued partnership with CPS in the effective and efficient delivery of facility investments to benefit students,” said PBC Executive Director Erin Lavin Cabonargi.
“This work is about providing students with the best possible educational environments, but it is more than that,” said Dr. Byron Brazier, a PBC board member. “I have worked with PBC staff to develop an aggressive plan that will put people to work who live closest to the affected schools and to encourage diverse business participation as well as a diverse workforce.”
The Public Building Commission of Chicago manages construction and renovation projects for the City of Chicago and its sister agencies. Mayor Rahm Emanuel serves as the PBC’s Chairman. Erin Lavin Cabonargi serves as the Executive Director of the PBC. Additional information about the PBC and its projects can be found at www.pbcchicago.com.